[ANN] CIYAM Safe - offline tx's using QR codes for comms

[CIYAM]

Another milestone towards CIYAM Open's 2013 mission has been achieved with the publication of the CIYAM Safe LiveOS on SUSE Studio: http://susestudio.com/a/kp8B3G/ciyam-safe

Using the distro as the LiveOS and after installing ZBar on your online computer you can create addresses and sign transactions in a manner that does not require USB (other than the live distro itself) as long as both your online and offline computers have webcams.

All source code is included - several various scripts and utilities are included from https://github.com/ciyam/safe and a slightly modified (just command line args not algo) version of "scrypt" from https://github.com/ciyam/scrypt.

If anyone would like to help test this it would be greatly appreciated (please consider it to be a "beta" at this stage and only test with very small amounts of BTC).

It should be noted that this is *not* trying to be an offline "wallet" in the same vein as Armory (although I guess it could be used for that purpose) and is not suitable for the technically non-savvy (you need to construct raw tx's) or for performing large numbers of tx's quickly. It's a bit more of a "nuts and bolts" type solution that was put together for the purpose of being able to create "paranoid" levels of security (as CIYAM Open intends to make sure its donations do not go anywhere apart from where they are meant to).

It has been tested with real transactions and testing also included re-installing the LiveOS (i.e. as if you'd lost it). The documentation is serviceable but far from "great" and the whole package could certainly be improved with some polish (if others are interested in using this and would be prepared to donate some funds towards adding more functionality then I will consider opening a project for it on CIYAM Open for it).

Of course others are welcome to copy this (or add QR comms to their own offline wallet projects).

[CIYAM]

As an incentive for others to test this out I will be sending 1 BTC2 BTC to the first 5 members who:

Install the LiveOS, generate an address with it and send a small amount of BTC to it (say 0.0015 with a 0.0005 fee) then create and sign a raw tx to send it somewhere else (i.e. back to yourself) and publish in this thread as proof:

1) the GPG public key for "local"

2) both the GPG public key and encrypted private key for "tux"

3) the User Key and Password that were used (neither must be *blank* and be sure not to use anything you would ever normally use elsewhere), and finally

4) the GPG encrypted private key for the "offline signed" tx

so that I can then verify that the GPG passphrase can be re-created in order to recover the private key of the "offline" address generated.

I managed to do this (whilst testing) in only a matter of minutes so it should be fairly easy money (if needed then assistance will be given via this thread only).



(see next post for update)

[CIYAM]

Okay - perhaps I will take a different approach to this (as I really do want to get the testing done).

The first five people who reply to this thread will be entitled to the (let's raise it to) 2 BTC reward provided that they have posted the required information (and it is proven to be correct) within 48 hours of posting here (once posted I will quote it to ensure that edits aren't done later) and using the same User Key and Password as another poster will not be accepted.

[John (John K.)]

I could do this with a spare computer. Is it bootable with a pendrive as I don't have a spare HDD at the moment?

[CIYAM]

Is it bootable with a pendrive as I don't have a spare HDD at the moment?

Absolutely as it's a LiveOS (and exactly how I have used it)!

[John (John K.)]

Is it bootable with a pendrive as I don't have a spare HDD at the moment?

Absolutely as it's a LiveOS (and exactly how I have used it)!

Okay, I'm halfway through the download. I should be installing this tonight and giving it a run.

(PS: China/Malaysian time  )

[CIYAM]

Okay, I'm halfway through the download. I should be installing this tonight and giving it a run.

(PS: China/Malaysian time  )

Great - am in the same timezone and most likely will be online until at least 11pm.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Downloading right now

Australian time zone :3

[CIYAM]

Australian time zone :3

No wukkas!

[CIYAM]

Be sure to install ZBar on your online computer (http://zbar.sourceforge.net/) and from https://github.com/ciyam/safe the batch/script files check(.bat) and scan(.bat).

[jl2012]

I'm downloading. My timezone is UTC+8.

Does it requires webcams? I don't have it

[CIYAM]

Does it requires webcams? I don't have it

Hmm... a big part of the test is really the whole "gapped by air" comms - if you have a smartphone then you could still work it out by sending the image on the offline computer's screen via email and then scanning using zbarimg (rather than zbarcam).

This approach is a little more clumsy I'm afraid - but it is definitely doable (as I originally was testing things using a Galaxy Tab as a "go between" before I remembered that I had an old webcam lying around that I could use with my offline computer).

BTW - timezone is not an issue (you just need to post a solution within 48 hours of your *own* initial post to this topic) - if you end up with a little more time to "edit your result" because no-one quoted your "result" then that will not be a problem (I have to sleep at sometime and am not trying to be too anal about the rules).

[John (John K.)]

Okay, I'm now trying to install.
I'm using unetbootin to install it to my pendrive, and boot from a spare laptop. Do I need to extract it down to the .raw file to install?

[CIYAM]

Okay, I'm now trying to install.
I'm using unetbootin to install it to my pendrive, and boot from a spare laptop. Do I need to extract it down to the .raw file to install?

I would recommend using ImageWriter from SUSE Studio http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Live_USB_stick#Install_ImageWriter instead (as I tried to use unetbootin and had no luck) but yes it is the .raw file you need to use (if it does work with unebootin please let us know).

[uuidman]

This seems interesting, I will try to test the project.

[John (John K.)]

Okay, I'm now trying to install.
I'm using unetbootin to install it to my pendrive, and boot from a spare laptop. Do I need to extract it down to the .raw file to install?

I would recommend using ImageWriter from SUSE Studio http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Live_USB_stick#Install_ImageWriter instead (as I tried to use unetbootin and had no luck) but yes it is the .raw file you need to use (if it does work with unebootin please let us know).

I renamed the .raw file to .iso and extracted it successfully. The 0.img file within crashes unetbootin, however, so I'm taking your route with imagewriter now.

[CIYAM]

This seems interesting, I will try to test the project.

Great - much appreciated (and I think a very good chance that you'll get 2 BTC for your efforts).

Any problems just post questions here and I will answer them (this is not a competition but instead an example of exactly how CIYAM Open will be doing its work).

[CIYAM]

I renamed the .raw file to .iso and extracted it successfully. The 0.img file within crashes unetbootin, however, so I'm taking your route with imagewriter now.

Yup - exactly what I had tried.

[CIYAM]

BTW - feedback about anything not well documented, etc. would be greatly appreciated (although making the UI nicer is not a priority for me unless others are interested to work on this).

[John (John K.)]

BTW - feedback about anything not well documented, etc. would be greatly appreciated (although making the UI nicer is not a priority for me unless others are interested to work on this).

Do document the use of ImageWriter, especially for persons like me who've never touched SUSE.