I've heard talks about the ability to script transactions. There are now several
types of transaction available in the network. Most interesting of them being
contractsI'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?
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
