Unlock things with bitcoin

[bobojoe]

I'm sure this question won't sound that articulate because I don't know all the uses of bitcoin or blockchain applications, but is there a way to lock a file, or image, or website with bitcoin? Theoretically, the only way to access the thing is to "unlock it" with bitcoin, hence pay the owner of the digital object. I'm sure there are 1000 projects that have some similar shtick, but can this just be done with bitcoin? I feel like if it was possible and easy to do that could be a game changer. Curious about people's thoughts.

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[pooya87]

but is there a way to lock a file, or image, or website with bitcoin?

can you store an image, file,... with your bank account or your PayPal account, etc?
it is the same with bitcoin. it is designed as a payment system and its blockchain aka the ledger is supposed to store the monetary transactions not random files.

Theoretically, the only way to access the thing is to "unlock it" with bitcoin, hence pay the owner of the digital object.

as far as possibility goes, any transaction output can contain any garbage data inside which could be a file. although bitcoin nodes are going to reject such nonstandard transactions because of the reason i mentioned above.

theoretically speaking and off the top of my head, one could encrypt a file (as raw bytes) with their public key then publish it on bitcoin blockchain. then two parties could come up with a multisignature design with that public key and the "buyer's" public key. then the buyer sends coins to that multisig address, as soon as the first party spends from that address he has to reveal the public key in which case the buyer can decrypt the file. but so will anybody else since the blockchain is public.

[SeaBits]

I'm sure this question won't sound that articulate because I don't know all the uses of bitcoin or blockchain applications, but is there a way to lock a file, or image, or website with bitcoin? Theoretically, the only way to access the thing is to "unlock it" with bitcoin, hence pay the owner of the digital object. I'm sure there are 1000 projects that have some similar shtick, but can this just be done with bitcoin? I feel like if it was possible and easy to do that could be a game changer. Curious about people's thoughts.

The only thing I can think of is: https://satoshidisk.com/

[bobojoe]

I'm sure this question won't sound that articulate because I don't know all the uses of bitcoin or blockchain applications, but is there a way to lock a file, or image, or website with bitcoin? Theoretically, the only way to access the thing is to "unlock it" with bitcoin, hence pay the owner of the digital object. I'm sure there are 1000 projects that have some similar shtick, but can this just be done with bitcoin? I feel like if it was possible and easy to do that could be a game changer. Curious about people's thoughts.

The only thing I can think of is: https://satoshidisk.com/

Yeah, that looks pretty close to what I was thinking. Have you ever used it?

[bobojoe]

I'm sure this question won't sound that articulate because I don't know all the uses of bitcoin or blockchain applications, but is there a way to lock a file, or image, or website with bitcoin? Theoretically, the only way to access the thing is to "unlock it" with bitcoin, hence pay the owner of the digital object. I'm sure there are 1000 projects that have some similar shtick, but can this just be done with bitcoin? I feel like if it was possible and easy to do that could be a game changer. Curious about people's thoughts.

The only thing I can think of is: https://satoshidisk.com/

Yeah, that looks pretty close to what I was thinking. Have you ever used it?

I take that back, this is exactly what I was thinking of. You rock!


The pages doesn't seem to accept emails to send the download to though:
https://satoshidisk.com/pay/C9WBoK

[Reid]

You can now lock the thread if you already found your answer.
Just to avoid more spams that will come.

[bobojoe]

as far as possibility goes, any transaction output can contain any garbage data inside which could be a file. although bitcoin nodes are going to reject such nonstandard transactions because of the reason i mentioned above.
theoretically speaking and off the top of my head, one could encrypt a file (as raw bytes) with their public key then publish it on bitcoin blockchain. then two parties could come up with a multisignature design with that public key and the "buyer's" public key. then the buyer sends coins to that multisig address, as soon as the first party spends from that address he has to reveal the public key in which case the buyer can decrypt the file. but so will anybody else since the blockchain is public.

So what you're saying is you can only buy something with bitcoin once?

[pooya87]

I take that back, this is exactly what I was thinking of. You rock!

is it?
you are not locking anything with bitcoin, from what i can tell by looking at that site you are locking a file in their centralized database and then sell a link to that centralized database where they receive bitcoin payments to release the file then take their cut and deduct all the transaction fees and then give you what is left!
that is practically the most centralized way you can ever do things and you might as well also get paid in fiat

[bobojoe]

I take that back, this is exactly what I was thinking of. You rock!

is it?
you are not locking anything with bitcoin, from what i can tell by looking at that site you are locking a file in their centralized database and then sell a link to that centralized database where they receive bitcoin payments to release the file then take their cut and deduct all the transaction fees and then give you what is left!
that is practically the most centralized way you can ever do things and you might as well also get paid in fiat

Yeah, after looking at it a bit more that's exactly what it looks like they're doing. The site is pretty much just file arbitrage, so I take it back that it's exactly what I meant.

But how do you pay for a digital item and be guaranteed that someone else won't just copy pasta this item for free? Because if the item is somehow locked and can only be opened by someone with bitcoin, then you can actually transfer digital goods for bitcoin, or whatever, and they will hold that value without the risk of someone just copying it for free. I feel like there are probably alt projects that are trying to do this, but I haven't seen anything like that yet.

[NeuroticFish]

But how do you pay for a digital item and be guaranteed that someone else won't just copy pasta this item for free?

The only thing I can think of would be files with DRM protection. And in that case you'll usually be able to use the file only on one device.

I am not very familiar with the way DRM is made, but maybe an enhanced DRM-like protection can be made to the file is available only on the devices enabled by signing a message with the payer's BTC address, for example. (As I said, I am not familiar with DRM and I may have said something stupid).