Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Development & Technical Discussion => Topic started by: kcirazy on November 24, 2013, 10:17:58 AM



Title: Creating "Time release" money
Post by: kcirazy on November 24, 2013, 10:17:58 AM
I've heard talks about the ability to script transactions. There are now several types of transaction (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transactions#Types_of_Transaction) available in the network. Most interesting of them being contracts (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts)

I'm most interested in the type of transaction where the bitcoins are released to a new address after a specific period of time. Ideally I would like this to be done without a third party escrow agent. Is it possible to create a transaction where the network will only release the bitcoins to a specific address after a certain date?

Quote
Interval Instruments

"Time release" money that becomes good only after a certain date, and "interval money", that would expire after a certain date have been proposed. These can be implemented by a digital mint expiring or activating special issues of digital cash, or by a third party issuing escrowed keys at specific times. Since these keys are encrypted against the escrow agent, and that agent doesn't know what they will be used for, the escrow agent has no incentive to cheat. A generalization of this is that transfer and redeemability are each associated with interval sets, or validity periods when each can and cannot be performed. This is analogous to clipping coupons on bonds.

See http://szabo.best.vwh.net/formalize.html


Title: Re: Creating "Time release" money
Post by: flatfly on November 24, 2013, 10:27:12 AM
Lots of threads about this already...

A few keywords for you to search: nLockTime, LockMyCoins, LBAAT

The short answer is, it's not yet possible/supported to do this in a zero-trust way.