[2016-12-15] An 80 Character Record in Blockchain (like Twitter)

[Vladdirescu87]

Indelible.ink has recently invented a way to store an 80 character record on the Blockchain. Coinidol.com caught up with Steven E. Williams, the CEO of indelible.ink, and asked him a few questions about his company and what it offers to the market.

“Currently, tweets are written into the Bitcoin blockchain. Each tweet or message is individually stored in plain, human-readable text within a unique transaction; tweets are not hashed, encrypted or bundled together. More blockchains coming soon. Your Blockchain Receipt will indicate a unique reference number where your tweet can be looked up instantly at any future time. Share with family, friends, colleagues. How does it work? What is our "secret sauce"? We are running a full network node which, along with custom programming and systems administration, allows us to embed so-called arbitrary data into the OP_RETURN field of transactions. But that's probably more than you need to know. As the Wizard of Oz said to Dorothy, Scarecrow and the gang, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”

You can read more info and take part in the discussion here: https://coinidol.com/80-character-record-in-blockchain/

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[cr1776]

Indelible.ink has recently invented a way to store an 80 character record on the Blockchain. Coinidol.com caught up with Steven E. Williams, the CEO of indelible.ink, and asked him a few questions about his company and what it offers to the ...

Lol.   "Recently invented" using OP_RETURN?      That has been understood for years.

If they are claiming that, I'd beware of their other claims.

[harrymmmm]

Storing plain text tweets in our long-term, immutable database?
Using tens of thousands computers' bandwidth, disk space, cpu time forever?
 

Glad to hear 'other' blockchains coming soon. I bloody well hope so.

[TraderTimm]

Anyone who uses a shared resource like the Bitcoin blockchain as a personal hard drive deserves my everlasting scorn.

THIS is the best idea you could think of? What the everloving fuck is wrong with you? There are so many other ways to offload that burden on to clients without having to stuff "OMG LOLz LUV MY DINNER" vapid tweets into the Blockchain.

For the love of satoshi, just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

[Karartma1]

Indelible.ink has recently invented a way to store an 80 character record on the Blockchain. Coinidol.com caught up with Steven E. Williams, the CEO of indelible.ink, and asked him a few questions about his company and what it offers to the ...

Lol.   "Recently invented" using OP_RETURN?     That has been understood for years.

If they are claiming that, I'd beware of their other claims.

The OP_RETURN CEO of indelible.ink......

I could not expect we could get any lower than this in terms of Blockchain vaporware. Frickin' amazing how the "blockchain" is driving everybody crazy.

I will leave the following for reference
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/OP_RETURN

EDIT: OK now I get it

4. First tweet is free. If you like the demo, add 10 tweet credits for $10.

from indelible.ink website

[stedwms]

Hey guys, I'm the "OP_RETURN CEO" of Indelible.ink.

Man, your criticism is brutal.

It's all good -- as long as tweet volumes are manageable and miners are compensated for their work.

This is a proof-of-concept project.

It just happens to be generating some good press.

There will be MANY blockchains in the years to come.

Best regards, Steven E. Williams

https://www.indelible.ink

-----------------------------------------------------

https://www.indelible.ink/img/indelible.ink_screenshot.png

[Karartma1]

If your company would have not been presented as the one that invented the OP_RETURN data inclusion in the Blockchain no one would have said anything.
But since you were presented like that that what followed has been inevitable: I mean, the criticism.

[TraderTimm]

Hey guys, I'm the "OP_RETURN CEO" of Indelible.ink.

Man, your criticism is brutal.

It's all good -- as long as tweet volumes are manageable and miners are compensated for their work.

This is a proof-of-concept project.

It just happens to be generating some good press.

There will be MANY blockchains in the years to come.

Best regards, Steven E. Williams

----------------------------------------------------

So you're fine with people using the blockchain as a disposable resource? If there are going to be "many blockchains" maybe you should pollute one of those first...

What a fucking idiot.

Seriously I could think up 5 better ideas than what the fuck you think is so ground-breaking.

"Tragedy of the Commons" in action here, folks.

[stedwms]

Deep down, we are on the same page, TraderTimm. None of us who stumbled upon this discussion want our involvement to be disposable. It's all about giving a long-lasting quality to our tweets, sayings and words.

So, admittedly, we are stretching the common understanding of the word "tweet". Please forgive the play on words. All things considered, the courts ruled against Twitter when the company attempted to claim the term as their own intellectual property.

Take writers and authors as an example of where we are headed in terms of self-expression. Everyone seems to be self-publishing an ebook nowadays. The flurry of creative activity is a good thing and a manifestation of the personal drive for self-expression. As we know, the writing occupation dates back thousands of years. And yet, stone tablets carved by scribes of ages past seem to be more "permanent" than any form of self-expression available to us today.

If the volume of activity is manageable and miners are compensated -- fairly -- then what's wrong? Yes, of course, we'll have to move to another blockchain eventually, as things evolve. But all tweets and Blockchain Receipts will remain valid.

You might be interested to know... we're doing our part to support the network. Out of 5,434 Bitcoin nodes that are active right now at this very moment globally, two of them are run by me. 

Thank you, Karartma1, it was nice to hear from you. 

[TraderTimm]

Deep down, we are on the same page, TraderTimm. None of us who stumbled upon this discussion want our involvement to be disposable. It's all about giving a long-lasting quality to our tweets, sayings and words.

So, admittedly, we are stretching the common understanding of the word "tweet". Please forgive the play on words. All things considered, the courts ruled against twatter when the company attempted to claim the term as their own intellectual property.

Take writers and authors as an example of where we are headed in terms of self-expression. Everyone seems to be self-publishing an ebook nowadays. The flurry of creative activity is a good thing and a manifestation of the personal drive for self-expression. As we know, the writing occupation dates back thousands of years. And yet, stone tablets carved by scribes of ages past seem to be more "permanent" than any form of self-expression available to us today.

If the volume of activity is manageable and miners are compensated -- fairly -- then what's wrong? Yes, of course, we'll have to move to another blockchain eventually, as things evolve. But all tweets and Blockchain Receipts will remain valid.

You might be interested to know... we're doing our part to support the network. Out of 5,434 Bitcoin nodes that are active right now at this very moment globally, two of them are run by me. 

Thank you, Karartma1, it was nice to hear from you. 

Then LAUNCH ANOTHER BLOCKCHAIN TO  POLLUTE WITH TWEETS.

Why is every solution "Stuff random crap into the blockchain"? Can you understand the long-term harm this does? Its a SHARED resource, not a personal hard drive.

If the demand was there, another network could co-exist. What this tells me is that there's a gimmick that someone wants to make money on, so hey, why not dump all of their pollution into the Bitcoin blockchain. Everybody does it, amirite?

Its absurd thinking and I detest anyone who promotes this kind of activity.

[stedwms]

Hello all, I wanted to revive this thread with some good news...

...as promised, the system now offers an additional blockchain: FACTOM.

As you may know, FACTOM has been gaining traction within the wider crypto community for its coin as well as its protocol.

FACTOM isn't designed to be a data storage solution, but rather a protocol for anchoring.

The protocol is very compatible with preserving tweets and helping to build awareness of blockchains, the underlying purposes of my project.

Thank you for bearing with me on this one.

Steven Williams

www.indelible.ink

[Carlton Banks]

Your website deserves to be abused in the same way you're abusing the Bitcoin blockchain, IMO. I'm not going to do it, but I just won't care if it happens (whereas I do care when it happens to people that behave responsibly towards their fellow human beings).



And there's another possibility also, if your "service" becomes too disruptive, someone might just make their own Bitcoin client that rejects blocks containing transactions with plain text in OP_RETURNs. Ink isn't so indelible when no-one will let you write it, huh

[stedwms]

Hi Carlton, nice to hear from you.

Yes, of course, no one wants the network to be polluted. I learned this first-hand with my two Bitcoin network nodes.

Granted -- maybe you are also referring to increasing numbers of transactions competing for block space and, therefore, network latency. Yes, that could become a side effect -- if utilization really gets out of hand. But, this can be throttled down at the level of the data layer.

FACTOM is a great alternative data layer.

There are many more such layers in use today, and now under development.

To illustrate, let me look up a listing of services that currently embed their anchors into the OP_RETURN field. I'll post the list separately.

Best regards, Steven

[stedwms]

Hello again Carlton, as promised in my previous post, here is a listing.

All of these protocols were utilizing the OP_RETURN field as of several months ago. I know of at least one whose info should be updated here -- a major player. I had to refer to an old list from Oct. 21, 2016 because I'm no longer finding the information on the Bitcoin wiki.

The first item, e.g. "SPK" or "DOCPROOF", is the prefix that is used by the protocol within OP_RETURN.
-------------------------------------------------------
SPK CoinSpark (http://coinspark.org/developers/)
DOCPROOF Proof of Existence (http://www.proofofexistence.com/)
CryptoTests- Crypto Copyright (http://crypto-copyright.com/)
CryptoProof- Crypto Copyright (http://crypto-copyright.com/)
BS BlockSign (http://blocksignit.com/)
OA Open Assets (https://github.com/OpenAssets/open-assets-protocol
/blob/master/specification.mediawiki)
STAMPD## stampd (http://stampd.io/)
Factom!! Factom (http://factom.org/)
FACTOM00 Factom (http://factom.org/)
Fa Factom (http://factom.org/)
FA Factom (http://factom.org/)
tradle Tradle (http://tradle.io/)
LaPreuve LaPreuve (http://www.lapreuve.net/)
hex:5888 Blockstore (http://blog.onename.com/blockstore-bitcoin/)
hex:5808 Blockstore (http://blog.onename.com/blockstore-bitcoin/)
id Blockstore (http://blog.onename.com/blockstore-bitcoin/)
BITPROOF Bitproof (https://bitproof.io/)
S1 Stampery (https://stampery.co/)
S2 Stampery (https://stampery.co/)
S3 Stampery (https://stampery.co/)
S4 Stampery (https://stampery.co/)
S5 Stampery (https://stampery.co/)
ASCRIBE Ascribe (https://www.ascribe.io/)
ProveBit ProveBit (https://github.com/thereal1024/ProveBit)
EW Eternity Wall (http://eternitywall.it/)
CC Colu (http://colu.co/)
omni Omni Layer (http://www.omnilayer.org/)
MG Monegraph (http://monegraph.com/)
RMBd Remembr (https://app.remembr.io/)
RMBe Remembr (https://app.remembr.io/)
ORIGMY OriginalMy (http://originalmy.com/)
BID Identity (http://bitpos.me/)

[Carlton Banks]

This is the perennial schoolkid's retort, isn't it Steven?

"but but but siiiiiiirrrrr, everyone else was doing it too"



What next? Bigger boys made you do it?

[TraderTimm]

Hello again Carlton, as promised in my previous post, here is a listing.

All of these protocols were utilizing the OP_RETURN field as of several months ago.

< List of "I'm an abusive user of the blockchain" snipped >

Great.

Tell you what, I'll make it my mission to lobby for technical fixes that removes your abuse. Appreciate you pissing us off enough where it comes to this, it will prevent future fools trying to exploit a shared resource.

xoxoxo

[stedwms]

Hi Carlton, TraderTimm.... sorry anyone was pissed off... but here's more good news for you:

ETHEREUM has been added to the list.

So, at https://www.indelible.ink .... there are now three protocols for users to choose from: the Bitcoin network, Ethereum or Factom.

Working up close and personal with these protocols has really helped me to understand your criticism! Believe me, I don't want to intentionally piss anyone off. I would rather make a few friends here, not enemies. But you might find these observations interesting from my point of view as someone who is running nodes:

Ethereum is LIGHTNING FAST. The "geth" implementation -- which I'm working with -- is super fast, elegant, powerful code.

Factom is a great layer for all-purpose data anchoring into the chain. Speed varies.

Bitcoin processing really slowed down to a crawl during the recent flurry of trading. And yet, people are still embedding. The debate on the OP_RETURN field seems to have faded away. It has taken a back seat to pending issues such as SegWit.

It looks as though reality is boiling down to this: "Layers" such as Factom -- and also Blockstack -- are agile enough to move their embedding functionality from the Bitcoin network to another network of their choosing, whenever they decide the timing is right. (Both of them currently write anchors into the Bitcoin blockchain.) Ethereum is now a viable alternative for embedding / anchoring in addition to the full range of its capabilities.

We might just see a mass exodus from OP_RETURN embedding once other chains have gained enough traction.

https://www.indelible.ink

[Carlton Banks]

The only good news will be when your appallingly abusive concept dies a death, steven (a far more innovative sidechain will kill your "tech" eventually, lol)

And don't worry, you're not pissing anyone off, you'd have to have some kind of fortitude for that to happen

[TraderTimm]

Hi Carlton, TraderTimm.... sorry anyone was pissed off... but here's more good news for you:

< Snipped humblebragging >

You'll be super HAPPY to know that I've made my concerns known, and your business model is set to be "expired" in short order.

Enjoy the last waning minutes of abuse...

[stedwms]

Hello Carlton, TraderTimm:

It's been a while. You might be interested to know:

I made the decision to move away from the Bitcoin network because it has finally become too big and slow for data embedding.

Nevertheless, the OP_RETURN field is still being utilized for embedding and anchoring purposes by some very innovative companies and projects. Stay tuned. Their choices of underlying data structures will continue to evolve.

My project now relies on three chains: Ethereum, Factom and Groestlcoin.

Factom is a great general-purpose data layer: https://www.factom.com

Groestlcoin (GRS) is an established fork of BTC. Super fast and efficient. https://www.groestlcoin.org
See also: https://www.groestlcoin.org/what-is-groestlcoin-backed-by/

Happy trails,
Steven Williams
https://www.indelible.ink