Author

Topic: [ANNOUNCE] Bitcoin message service v1.0 (within block-chain) (Read 15050 times)

legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1056
Is this service free or Paid?. It seems like interesting when we send money with message inside it.

Thanks.......
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1010
he who has the gold makes the rules
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hello Bitcoin community!

Now you can write your message into the bitcoin block chain.
It will stay there forever with a proved timestamp.
Reading such bitcoin messages can be done online or offline.

Just visit http://btcmsg.staticloud.com or http://btcmsg.ifreeweb.net
Alternatively download the site for offline use from http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/offline.tgz or btcmsg.ifreeweb.net/offline.tgz or http://btcmsg.4shared.com

The procedure is:
1. Write your message.
2. Click the "send email" button that creates a request. Send this request.
3. Pay the _exact_ amount of BTC to the given account.

Your message will be part of the block-chain within few blocks, which means instantly thousands of copies all around the globe forever.

* No registration required.
* Totally anonymous if wanted.
* Open protocol and basic python tools are included.
* Offline option.
* Client is signed to verify authenticity.

Basic technical details:
The clients are html+css+javascript only, and they are enough to read the messages forever (you can save the client locally for offline use).
The service for writing new messages requires the availability of an appropriate server, but the already processed messages are accessible forever, and some are already present on your copy of the block chain.
In order to write a new message, the clients create an email request which the server then processes.
The server is a special customised bitcoin setup behind tor.

More information?
* FAQ inside the client
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/btcmsg
* Blog: https://btcmsg.wordpress.com
* Later on in bitcointalk.

Be one of the first to place a message within the block-chain and touch the eternity now!
Be responsible for your messages and think twice before you write them, so you don't regret later.
They cannot be deleted! Recall that your grandchildren will be able to see these messages ...

The service is still in Beta, please check twitter for downtime announcements.
Further testing is still needed:
Requests sent by mail.yahoo.com and send-mail.org were tested. If you use other webmail services or local clients, support will be added on the fly. It may mean a short delay in the timestamp.
If a problem does occur, you will get your bitcoins back (well, except for the usual bitcoin transaction fee).
For the first few messages I will communicate with you private issues per email. It would be better if you send your transaction id in the subject. Also, keep your message aside for reference just in case.

Note:
This project is also an experiment with anonymity. I am trying to be an active entity behind a public service which gets even paid, without exposing my identity. If you do manage to know who I am or even get interesting details about me, please contact me directly per email using my pgp key. The details are in the client.


BTCmsg,
at your service.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux)
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=TR7v
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

any new download links that arent spammy websites with tons of links?
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
....
Note:
This project is also an experiment with anonymity. I am trying to be an active entity behind a public service which gets even paid, without exposing my identity. If you do manage to know who I am or even get interesting details about me, please contact me directly per email using my pgp key. The details are in the client.
.....

This is the consequence of anonymity.
I am still waiting for any kind of response.  Should we consider btcmsg website abandoned?
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
still waiting....
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
well, i tried to put a message in last night.
paid my 0.24295077 BTC.  and nothing happened. 

how long do i have to wait?
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
what is the maximum size of a message with this service?
are there any other restrictions?  I assume using just ascii characters is one restriction
cjp
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 124
Just to check that my two implementations are compatible:
Can you please check whether you can read this transaction:
613fee338c72036c4799c5240a682c45063066b53998afae3af621a0928c9b8f
http://blockexplorer.com/rawtx/613fee338c72036c4799c5240a682c45063066b53998afae3af621a0928c9b8f
cjp
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 124
If you send a patch, I will consider adding it.
Still, the back-end has to be updated as well, and it requires additional work ...

BTCmsg,
at your service.

Here you have a diff on "protocol.py".
Although my error rate when coding is usually quite low, I have to warn you that this is completely untested.
Code:
10a11
> SHA256SUM_IDENTIFIER='03'
48a50,68
>     if data_type=='sha256':
>         x=h
>         # Verify h is 64 hexadecimal chars long
>         if len(x) != 64:
>             print 'sha256 must be exactly 64 chars long'
>             return ([],'')
>         for j in range(64):
>             if x[j]<'0' or x[j]>'f':
>                 print 'sha256 chars are only 0-9,a-f'
>                 return ([],'')
>         # Split to groups with char length
>         # 2,4,4,...,4,2
>         s=[]
>         s.append(SHA256SUM_IDENTIFIER+h[:2]) # Mark sha256 msg with SHA256SUM_IDENTIFIER
>         for i in range(15):
>             s.append(h[2+i*4:6+i*4])
>         s.append(h[62:65]+'00')
>         for t in s:
>             output.append('0.'+'%08d' % (int(t,16)))
76a97,107
>     elif data_type == ASCII_IDENTIFIER: # ascii
>         x=''
>         for t in l:
>             x+=t
>         m=x[2:]
>         return binascii.unhexlify(m)
>     elif data_type == SHA256SUM_IDENTIFIER: # sha256
>         x=''
>         for t in l:
>             x+=t
>         return x[2:-2]
78,85c109
<         if data_type == ASCII_IDENTIFIER: # ascii
<             x=''
<             for t in l:
<                 x+=t
<             m=x[2:]
<             return binascii.unhexlify(m)
<         else:
<             print 'Unrecognized data type %s' % (data_type,)
---
>         print 'Unrecognized data type %s' % (data_type,)

I didn't mean you necessarily have to implement this SHA256 option, I just meant that it would be nice to standardize it for future software versions. I consider using this in my own software, so if I follow the extended version of the standard, at least you and others know how to interpret my messages. Also, we'll avoid the "incompatibility" scenario where someone else uses "03" for some other purpose.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
See https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/how-to-do-document-timestamping-with-the-block-chain-72022: I am interested in inserting sha256sum data into the block chain.

I see that the protocol you currently use has the following message types:
'01' for md5
'02' for ascii

May I suggest to add the following?:
'03' for sha256sum

I see you already have an option for md5sum, but from what I know, the MD5 algorithm has serious security flaws, so it shouldn't be used as secure hash algorithm. SHA256 is used by Bitcoin itself, so using anything that is better than SHA256 doesn't make sense, until Bitcoin itself switches to a better hash type. Since a SHA256 hash is still quite small (256 bits = 32 bytes = 17(?) payments using your scheme), I don't see a reason to use smaller hashes either. So IMO SHA256 is the "best" secure hashing function for Bitcoin messaging.


If you send a patch, I will consider adding it.
Still, the back-end has to be updated as well, and it requires additional work ...

BTCmsg,
at your service.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
is everything required to do this ourselves included in "btcmsg-tools"?

perhaps you could post a tutorial of how one might encode their own messages into the block chain using your protocol.

I would be most grateful and would be willing to toss a few BTC your way.

Thanks!

Everything needed is available on http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/#FAQ
The parts which are not online, are only the daemons that runs everything automatically.
You may pm me if you would like details to do it yourself.

BTCmsg,
at your service (although still offline)
cjp
full member
Activity: 210
Merit: 124
See https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/how-to-do-document-timestamping-with-the-block-chain-72022: I am interested in inserting sha256sum data into the block chain.

I see that the protocol you currently use has the following message types:
'01' for md5
'02' for ascii

May I suggest to add the following?:
'03' for sha256sum

I see you already have an option for md5sum, but from what I know, the MD5 algorithm has serious security flaws, so it shouldn't be used as secure hash algorithm. SHA256 is used by Bitcoin itself, so using anything that is better than SHA256 doesn't make sense, until Bitcoin itself switches to a better hash type. Since a SHA256 hash is still quite small (256 bits = 32 bytes = 17(?) payments using your scheme), I don't see a reason to use smaller hashes either. So IMO SHA256 is the "best" secure hashing function for Bitcoin messaging.
legendary
Activity: 1611
Merit: 1001
is everything required to do this ourselves included in "btcmsg-tools"?

perhaps you could post a tutorial of how one might encode their own messages into the block chain using your protocol.

I would be most grateful and would be willing to toss a few BTC your way.

Thanks!
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Notice:
BTCmsg service will be unavailable few *days*, due to maintenance.
All existing messages are available (and will be forever ...), but no new messages will be accepted for now.

For the user that sent lately a message larger than 5 BTC - thank you for the message.
Unfortunately the daemon was down when the message was sent, and when it was up again, the message got already auto-deleted (mailinator rules).
Please contact me with the message you wrote, better using a private message on bitcointalk.org or to [email protected] (which I check seldom).

A notice when the service is alive again will be given.

BTCmsg,
at your service
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
There were 2 users that got a refund now. Sorry - your message didn't arrive.
Please try again.

An interesting message that went through was:
http://blockexplorer.com/rawtx/c1e190ef62af4788b17cd7b87d665a0743b24e166f9c92e58f41dcc26e262010
(just paste in http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/#Browse )

It links to a reddit thread regarding child porn on your hard drive ... http://tinyurl.com/7g9vvwm

BTCmsg,
at your service
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
btcmsg, are you converting message to numbers? sees address are irrelevent, and you hold these bunch of keys.  Grin

I am not sure I fully understood you. I do convert the messages to numbers using a simple protocol, so it would be possible to decipher them. The addresses are not important, but their order is. In order to preform this procedure, I do have to hold many keys.

BTCmsg,
at your service
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
btcmsg, are you converting message to numbers? sees address are irrelevent, and you hold these bunch of keys.  Grin
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
It seems that another message had a problem:
The user that sent a message on 2012-01-17 - please contact me.
Your email part has never arrived.

BTCmsg,
at your service
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
My apologies to the user that sent http://blockexplorer.com/tx/8dd15ca86d38918d3afebe6211dea8348f40c5dfd95e4812724412115040cb30 (nice bitcoin address you have there).
You may just paste the content of:
http://blockexplorer.com/rawtx/9e818ef31412b6b0a1102ecc964e00f8dedd8ed7d5b7c952873b3d79289b0a79
in http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/#Browse
and see your message.

Due to mailinator internal API change which BTCmsg system uses, the automatic procedure failed.
Now BTCmsg system supports this new API and it can process new messages with no such issue.

BTCmsg,
at your service
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Just to remind you that the service is running 24/7 as it is fully automatic.
Support will continue to be here.

BTCmsg,
at your service
donator
Activity: 4760
Merit: 4323
Leading Crypto Sports Betting & Casino Platform
Thanks btcmsg, for the message and the support.

Also, for those were who are as lost and clueless as I was, you can lookup the BTCmsg address on blockexplorer and get a list of the transactions containing messages.   Wink

http://blockexplorer.com/address/1BTCmsgZo1ef9nkx1eQMy5DsiaNfRQMVuR
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Hello to the user that sent 0.09667787 BTC to the address 1CnB6deXqy8qmAPfdVxAV7xzycnPGGJbgG
Your email message got lost, so please send it again, or send the message to my private email (appears in the client), or PM me.
If you don't respond within 72 hours, a refund will be issued.

BTCmsg,
at your service

Since no response was seen, a full refund (0.09667787 BTC) was issued:
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MDahLJFmbyDgjyetq6sENZJHkVS2r1vSi
Dear user: You may try again, just take care to send the email message with no mistakes (especially correct "To" field).

BTCmsg,
at you service.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Hello to the user that sent 0.09667787 BTC to the address 1CnB6deXqy8qmAPfdVxAV7xzycnPGGJbgG
Your email message got lost, so please send it again, or send the message to my private email (appears in the client), or PM me.
If you don't respond within 72 hours, a refund will be issued.

BTCmsg,
at your service

I think the message is sent?

~ Matt & Angela in love always and forever ~ 8/1/2009

No, this is a different message.
I am still waiting for the 0.09667787 BTC message.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
Hello to the user that sent 0.09667787 BTC to the address 1CnB6deXqy8qmAPfdVxAV7xzycnPGGJbgG
Your email message got lost, so please send it again, or send the message to my private email (appears in the client), or PM me.
If you don't respond within 72 hours, a refund will be issued.

BTCmsg,
at your service

I think the message is sent?

~ Matt & Angela in love always and forever ~ 8/1/2009
sr. member
Activity: 284
Merit: 251
This looks like a good service.  Great idea.  It'd be nice if the email step was built in though so everything could be done straight from the site.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Hello to the user that sent 0.09667787 BTC to the address 1CnB6deXqy8qmAPfdVxAV7xzycnPGGJbgG
Your email message got lost, so please send it again, or send the message to my private email (appears in the client), or PM me.
If you don't respond within 72 hours, a refund will be issued.

BTCmsg,
at your service
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Asked before but unanswered as far as I can tell. 

What pool is this done through?

The message is written using a normal transaction. The one who generates the next block and accepts that transaction is the one to place it in the block chain (and the one that gets the fee).
No specific pool is involved, but obviously pools are those who generate most of the blocks nowadays, so with a high probability it is a pool that does the job.

BTCmsg,
At you service.
legendary
Activity: 1386
Merit: 1004
Historical event!
The first message written using Bitcoin message service (well, except for my own messages), has been processed.

To see it, you should copy everything from:
http://blockexplorer.com/rawtx/afed08f0d9a99b7ee68e58cd8ac42f83d8238cdb0a36cbb0ded6d5498b2dd807
and paste in:
http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/#Browse
... or go the "local" way using your own copy of block-chain, as described in a previous message.

I would just say that it is a known (and relevant) citation from Thomas Jefferson :-)
This citation will stay as part of the bitcoin block-chain forever.

Some technical details about this message:
  • Request first appeared in Block 149039 (2011-10-12 15:01:14)
  • Request got processed in  Block 149045 (2011-10-12 15:36:03)
  • The amount paid by the user for this message is 0.24863442 BTC
  • The fee that Bitcoin message service has paid to the bitcoin network for this message is 0.001 BTC

Thank you first user :-)

BTCmsg,
at your service.

Asked before but unanswered as far as I can tell. 

What pool is this done through?
legendary
Activity: 1526
Merit: 1134
Transactions that don't contain public keys cannot ever be spent so they are safe to delete.

I'm sure at some point theymos will pop up and remind everyone that whilst this program doesn't do it, there are ways to construct transactions with messages inside that can't be deleted unless there's some other way to achieve a global consensus on making the outputs unspendable.

Nevertheless, putting messages in the block chain is a stupid and pointless idea. If you want to broadcast a message so it cannot be deleted take out an advert in a national newspaper. They are archived by libraries around the world and distributed to hundreds of thousands of different people.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
legendary
Activity: 1526
Merit: 1134
I think there are some mistaken beliefs in this thread that should be corrected.

Firstly, yes these messages can be deleted. It's not correct that you are forcing Bitcoin users to keep your scribbles around forever. Once a transaction is identified as being a message transaction, it can be erased from local copies of the block chain. That part of the merkle tree is stubbed out. As long as the majority of nodes synchronize their behavior in this regard, new nodes can still bootstrap from the chain because stubbed out transactions cannot be spent, so there is no danger of receiving a transaction you can't verify but which still gets included. The code to do this isn't written but will eventually be just for the scalability benefits.

The usual proposed "solution" to this problem is to encrypt the message so nobody can identify it as being a non-financial transaction. However then you've simply changed the problem from getting your message to somebody  to getting the key+txhash to somebody, which makes the whole exercise pointless - anyone who has the correct key and txhash can read the message, so you may as well just send them the message directly and in the clear. It'd be much more secure to just use conventional email and PGP.

There is another mistakes belief expressed here, which is that most users will have a full block chain copy and that this is how smartphone copies work. That isn't correct. No Android Bitcoin app keeps a full block chain copy today. They use simplified payment verification instead (read Satoshis paper). Eventually the vast majority of users will not have a full block chain copy but only the headers. Full verifying nodes will probably end up being run only by miners, merchants, hobbyists, bitbanks, etc.

Please don't insert arbitrary messages into the block chain. You are not buying immortality, you're just creating blockchain graffiti, and just like real graffiti if it became a larger problem it would eventually get cleaned up.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 504
^SEM img of Si wafer edge, scanned 2012-3-12.
Another message is already present on your disk inside the block chain:
Why not checking it now?

You can read it offline using (slightly modified) bitcoin-tools (patch included):
Code:
$ bitcoind stop
$ mkdir -p /tmp/bitcoin-block-snapshot
$ cp ~/.bitcoin/blk* /tmp/bitcoin-block-snapshot
$
$ wget http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/msgdump.tgz
$ tar xfz msgdump.tgz
$ cd btcmsg-tools
$
$ python msgdump.py --datadir=/tmp/bitcoin-block-snapshot --transaction=72e78a410caf245e18ec9ee04d2e478c1e68f5eb8503d34ff69589a07aaa3cd1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth
was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and
the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, "Let there be light".
$
$
One of the first messages in the blockchain is a religious quote?

Gah -_-

I'm tempted to post the litany of Gendlin to the blockchain. At a later timestamp than the genisis quote, of course, to signify humanity's acceptance of reality and transcendence over primitive concepts.
Quote from: Eugene Gendlin
What is true is already so.
Owning up to it doesn't make it worse.
Not being open about it doesn't make it go away.
And because it's true, it is what is there to be interacted with.
Anything untrue isn't there to be lived.
People can stand what is true,
for they are already enduring it.


(Or perhaps I should the much more straightforward quote by Richard Dawkins: "By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.")
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0

Why can I not use a web-based mail program of my choice?

why not just create a mailto-link that can be copied into any mail-software?

it's a pity I cannot use the service ...

 Sad

I will add an additional mailto link on the next version...
Until then, you can click the button (which is anyhow implemented as a mailto link), and copy the to/subject/body from the message that opens in your local mail client, and paste it into your webmail.
Take care: Mistakes in the copy/paste may damage the message.
sr. member
Activity: 359
Merit: 250

Why can I not use a web-based mail program of my choice?

why not just create a mailto-link that can be copied into any mail-software?

it's a pity I cannot use the service ...

 Sad



newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
What a wonderful app.

May be it should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion.

I didn't move the thread, but instead I opened a new thread in Bitcoin Discussion:
Services possible only using BTC
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/services-possible-only-using-btc-49127
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
I just found 90% of my BTCs are sent to 1BTCmsgZo1ef9nkx1eQMy5DsiaNfRQMVuR

Nice job , but can you make it cheaper ?

Transaction of very small amount require higher transaction fee by the bitcoin network (this is embedded within the bitcoin client code).
I have set the price to avoid the "too low transaction" punishment, to cover the current transaction fees and to leave a small margin that supposed to cover the running costs of the service.
Currently I am very far from covering the costs, but if there is a reasonable demand I could reduce the fee.
This would require an update to btcmsg html/css/javascript client and setting the new values in the server side (few seconds work ...), but considering the deep dive of the BTC/USD rate took, I don't see the price so high now.

What will happen to messages once a newer client version is published?
The old messages will be always visible by the old clients as well as new clients.
New ascii messages will be always visible by old clients as well as new clients.
Non ascii messages as well as any other new feature may be only available using a newer client.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
I've send the email and
pay exactly 0.16969016 BTC to 1QCfYmFzWCDkQpGBDLvQQTLxk2gKRy3Uyq

Where will this done?

Sorry for answering late. I was offline.
The system has received your payment at Block 149878 (2011-10-19 11:34:30)
After 3 confirmations, the processing was done, and the message appeared in Block 149882 (2011-10-19 12:12:00)
In total, there were 4 blocks in between the request and the process (37.5 minutes).
The message is available in the transaction:
http://blockexplorer.com/rawtx/b35c9a4554b87ed6138ceadc9d830e1056552fbb458c55447e8fcbd0ed83a3d0
and in order to see it, just copy all its content, and paste in http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/#Browse

You could also search in blockexplorer the address that you have sent the payment to, and see the the first "sent" transaction is your message.

BTCmsg,
at your service.
newbie
Activity: 55
Merit: 0
Great Job!

Really impressed.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
What a wonderful app.

May be it should be moved to Bitcoin Discussion.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
I just found 90% of my BTCs are sent to 1BTCmsgZo1ef9nkx1eQMy5DsiaNfRQMVuR

Nice job , but can you make it cheaper ?
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
I've send the email and
pay exactly 0.16969016 BTC to 1QCfYmFzWCDkQpGBDLvQQTLxk2gKRy3Uyq

Where will this done?
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Again, this is really nice.
A really worthy way to destroy (spend) bitcoins.

Thank you finway!
It you have something important to tell humanity, that's the place.
Be the second user :-)

BTCmsg,
at your service.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
Again, this is really nice.
A really worthy way to destroy (spend) bitcoins.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Where else do you get a backup of your data in 100,000 locations uniformly distributed all over the planet
Posting to Usenet gives you just as much redundancy.

The p2p architecture of bitcoin uses the redundancy very well for availability. It is enough that only few among the thousands of copies are online to make the system fully available 24/7.
If the usenet servers fall and I want my message - I have to ask around who has a copy. Who made a backup of my usenet post. That's less likely to work.

The bitcoin user MUST have a copy of the blockchain just to make transactions. No one makes you keep offline usenet archive backups ...
Once you have read the usenet post, you don't keep it, but the blockchain you do keep.

Any bitcoin block chain copies are present also on each smartphone with a wallet ... and that's where personal computation is heading. There will be no copies of the usenet posts on your phone, I assume.

Government order to delete a message from the usenet would probably work, but deleting the message from the blockchain wouldn't.

And the cherry is the cryptographically signed timestamp, that you don't have in the usenet. It would be very handy to prove prior art in court for example.

But we can all choose where to put our data.

BTCmsg,
at your service.
hero member
Activity: 714
Merit: 500
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Damn, $1 for THAT? lol

What's this all about? Digital era tatoos? Just remember kids, no love declarations with names: You might regret it later, just like with real tatoos Wink

Well, psy, as you suggest, we should think outside of the box ;-)

Lets see what you get for this 1$:

  • Your message is kept forever. I don't think there is any other service in the world offering you anything like this.
  • Lowest possible rate. Any price divided by eternity is mathematically 0 $/month.
    If it was for 50 years only, it would have meant 0.0017 $/month. Affordable, isn't it?
  • Proof of time - you can easily prove that this message was written before it's timestamp.

But that is not the main thing about the bitcoin message at all:
Where else do you get a backup of your data in 100,000 locations uniformly distributed all over the planet (is there any bitcoin user in Antarctica)?
Even in the most secure services, e.g. Amazon S3 you may have your data in 2-10 locations. Bitcoin message service offers here a backup which is 10^5 times stronger, not to mention that it is kept by 100,000 different people.
Another important note is that the message cannot be erased (with any other service, e.g. Amazon S3, a government can easily order to delete the message).

Let's go one step further:
If the civilisation is destroyed or if simply WWIII starts, the messages of the bitcoin message service will be the best survivors, as there are so many scattered copies of the messages. Soon more copies than the bible ...

You have mentioned digital tattoos. They are also an option, but the service is meant for special information publishing needs:
  • Anonymous publish of data (leak sensitive information securely and directly using the p2p network).
  • Proof of owning information with a timestamp (e.g. patents and other intellectual property related).
  • Keep data that cannot get deleted or lost.

Hey, when I look at the service this way, the price of 1$ is way too low :-)
Actually it is no where even close to the development and running expenses ...

BTCmsg,
at your service.
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1002
Damn, $1 for THAT? lol

What's this all about? Digital era tatoos? Just remember kids, no love declarations with names: You might regret it later, just like with real tatoos Wink
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Historical event!
The first message written using Bitcoin message service (well, except for my own messages), has been processed.

To see it, you should copy everything from:
http://blockexplorer.com/rawtx/afed08f0d9a99b7ee68e58cd8ac42f83d8238cdb0a36cbb0ded6d5498b2dd807
and paste in:
http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/#Browse
... or go the "local" way using your own copy of block-chain, as described in a previous message.

I would just say that it is a known (and relevant) citation from Thomas Jefferson :-)
This citation will stay as part of the bitcoin block-chain forever.

Some technical details about this message:
  • Request first appeared in Block 149039 (2011-10-12 15:01:14)
  • Request got processed in  Block 149045 (2011-10-12 15:36:03)
  • The amount paid by the user for this message is 0.24863442 BTC
  • The fee that Bitcoin message service has paid to the bitcoin network for this message is 0.001 BTC

Thank you first user :-)

BTCmsg,
at your service.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
The system did not get your message request per email so it cannot be automatically processed.
If you don't respond within 72 hours, I will issue a refund for you.

Since the user has not yet resend the email message and not contacted me directly either, I have issued a refund:
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/c7c253e5fdfe267b5604d0ae09ab7224967e67653e9881d1afe3444548465b01

Actually, according to the payment I could see that the message had no more than 9 letters. I have scanned the whole space of possible ascii messages of maximal 9 letters, and found none that could have arrived to the specific bitcoin address with this amount. It means that except for the lost email problem, the sender also had a mistake with the bitcoin payment - he has sent either a wrong amount or used a wrong address to send to.

First user - you may try again now :-)
Maybe somebody else would like to be the first user to write a message which can't be deleted?

BTCmsg,
at your service.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 252
seems it's exactly what i thought it was.

i just didn't know it hadn't been expanded to anything other than btc/nmc yet.

Gotcha. Once merged mining is proven in a general sense, it seems to me that merged mining is a no-brainer for all pool operators and miners. Why wouldn't pool operators offer mining of all block chains simultaneously, and why wouldn't miners want additional revenue? I understand that now selling many chains on the exchange could be a hassle, but tools will be available to relieve that burden if so.
sr. member
Activity: 294
Merit: 252
under that logic, the 'rational' thing for all pools would be to mine ixcoin, i0coin, solidcoin, everyothercoin as well, and for all miners participating in pools to demand payment in all these alternates or their btc equivalent.

Merged mining isn't what you think it is.
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1003
Ron Gross
under that logic, the 'rational' thing for all pools would be to mine ixcoin, i0coin, solidcoin, everyothercoin as well, and for all miners participating in pools to demand payment in all these alternates or their btc equivalent.

Not really. When mining anything else except Namecoin, you have to give up on some Bitcoin mining for that (at least until merged mining expands beyond just Namecoin). So if someone believes Bitcoin+Namecoin is more profitable than other chains, the rational thing for him to do is keep mining just Bitcoin & Namecoin.

The one possible exception is the GPU-hostile coins (you could say mining Litecoin is free because your CPU isn't used when mining for Bitcoin), but I think those coins are rather orthogonal, and wouldn't be mined by the same pools at all.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Another message is already present on your disk inside the block chain:
Why not checking it now?

You can read it offline using (slightly modified) bitcoin-tools (patch included):
Code:
$ bitcoind stop
$ mkdir -p /tmp/bitcoin-block-snapshot
$ cp ~/.bitcoin/blk* /tmp/bitcoin-block-snapshot
$
$ wget http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/msgdump.tgz
$ tar xfz msgdump.tgz
$ cd btcmsg-tools
$
$ python msgdump.py --datadir=/tmp/bitcoin-block-snapshot --transaction=72e78a410caf245e18ec9ee04d2e478c1e68f5eb8503d34ff69589a07aaa3cd1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth
was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and
the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, "Let there be light".
$
$

Or using the web client:
1. Copy everything from http://blockexplorer.com/rawtx/72e78a410caf245e18ec9ee04d2e478c1e68f5eb8503d34ff69589a07aaa3cd1
2. Paste it in http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/#Browse

And you will see the message!

Write your message as well :-)

BTCmsg,
at your service.
legendary
Activity: 1386
Merit: 1004
What pool is this being done through?
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Many thanks for the first user!

The system did not get your message request per email so it cannot be automatically processed.
Please help me debug the issue.

Your payment transaction has arrived safely:
http://blockexplorer.com/tx/7ff690ed9bb02045cbe0700fb977302cb0bd3b01eb792541a8a1af2cd790c7c5
Please try to write again the message and send the email with the "Send email" button (no need to send again the BTC payment). You may use send-email.org service instead for better anonymity.

Once the message arrives, the automatic process will take place.

If the message is not processed within few hours after your sending (this you can see in the above tx, as the "Not yet redeemed" changes to the next tx link),  please contact me per email (available in the client), and write there the exact message (every space is important).

I will continue the discussion with you in private.

If you don't respond within 72 hours, I will issue a refund for you.

BTCmsg,
at your service.
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1003
Ron Gross
Not really.  Pools only promise their miners bitcoins in return for shares; if there are even a handful of pools that don't mine your blockchain, you're essentially crossing your fingers and hoping the operators of those pools don't abuse the "free hashpower on your chain" they get as a consequence of the fact that their miners don't expect HappyPantsCoins.

Pool operators are kept in check by the fact that their members expect to get paid BTC for shares; if the operator uses the hashpower for anything other than "playing nice" it's likely to cut into the poolmembers' profits, they will get upset, and they will leave.  If you're an altchain using merged mining this mechanism is not working for you -- you've been warned!

Bitcoin is as secure as all the miners, each voting in proportion to his/her hashpower.  Altchains using merged mining are only as secure as the BTC-mining pool operators are trustworthy.

Sorry, but I don't understand the argument.

Since now with Merged Mining mining Namecoin is essentially free if you're already mining Namecoin, the rational thing for all pools would be to mine Namecoin as well. The rational thing for all miners participating in pools is to demand payments in Namecoin as well as BTC (or BTC equivalent of those Namecoin), and migrate to whatever pools offers this to them if their current pool will not.

What am I missing?
donator
Activity: 980
Merit: 1004
felonious vagrancy, personified
With merged mining, it could even have the same security as Bitcoin if you get enough pools to jump on it.

Not really.  Pools only promise their miners bitcoins in return for shares; if there are even a handful of pools that don't mine your blockchain, you're essentially crossing your fingers and hoping the operators of those pools don't abuse the "free hashpower on your chain" they get as a consequence of the fact that their miners don't expect HappyPantsCoins.

Pool operators are kept in check by the fact that their members expect to get paid BTC for shares; if the operator uses the hashpower for anything other than "playing nice" it's likely to cut into the poolmembers' profits, they will get upset, and they will leave.  If you're an altchain using merged mining this mechanism is not working for you -- you've been warned!

Bitcoin is as secure as all the miners, each voting in proportion to his/her hashpower.  Altchains using merged mining are only as secure as the BTC-mining pool operators are trustworthy.
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1003
Ron Gross
Previous discussions about this topic have pointed out that this unnecessarily bloats the blockchain for those that would rather use Bitcoin as a currency and a currency alone.  Some people wanted DNS information to be stored in the Bitcoin blockchain, but now the project materialized as its own blockchain, Namecoin.  Why not make a new blockchain for this service?  With merged mining, it could even have the same security as Bitcoin if you get enough pools to jump on it.

http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1431/does-encoding-namecoin-messages-into-the-blockchain-bloat-it
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
Thank you GamingG for your comment!

I understand your concerns and I hope you find my answers below satisfying.

As an owner of bitcoins, I hope that the bitcoin system keeps running and that the value of bitcoins does not keep decreasing constantly as it did in the last months. With the introduction of the bitcoin message service I am trying to open the bitcoin to a wider circle by giving bitcoins an added value, a service which was not possible before: a simple way for any average person to write something that will stay there forever (possibly anonymously) and at the same time to be able to prove the timestamp of that message. I use the special infrastructure of bitcoin which is the "p2p + money value" that makes it something that many like to keep.

The idea is to have this service living in symbiosis with bitcoin. Supply new users to bitcoin as I offer something new which can be of interest to people who did not consider using bitcoin before. Any such new service pushes bitcoin further into being a real currency that one can do something with rather than only speculate in the exchange game. In return I get the credibility that bitcoin has already gained, and mainly it large user base.

The service indeed increases the size of the blockchain, but it is not much different from other transactions which occur as part of bitcoin being a currency. Browsing the blockchain shows very similar transactions all around. If bitcoin ever becomes more popular, a major increase in the blockchain is imminent and the system has to cope with it.

As for the solution of starting a new blockchain: the merged mining may solve the difficulty/security problem, but still an important factor for a service like bitcoin message is the popularity - the amount of copies of the message out there in the world. This is required to assure that this message will be there forever (or at least until bitcoin currency totally dies). If the new generated blockchain is held be only few, it could be easily erased and ignored.

It is important to note that also the miners gain from this service as the transaction fees which are paid are high (e.g. 0.006 BTC which is 12 times the common 0.0005 BTC fee), and at a certain point the transaction fees would be the main drive to keep the bitcoin system running.

Obviously I need the support of the bitcoin community that will start using the service. This is a required step before the service becomes popular also outside the current community.

BTCmsg,
at your service.
newbie
Activity: 57
Merit: 0
Previous discussions about this topic have pointed out that this unnecessarily bloats the blockchain for those that would rather use Bitcoin as a currency and a currency alone.  Some people wanted DNS information to be stored in the Bitcoin blockchain, but now the project materialized as its own blockchain, Namecoin.  Why not make a new blockchain for this service?  With merged mining, it could even have the same security as Bitcoin if you get enough pools to jump on it.
newbie
Activity: 35
Merit: 0
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Hello Bitcoin community!

Now you can write your message into the bitcoin block chain.
It will stay there forever with a proved timestamp.
Reading such bitcoin messages can be done online or offline.

Just visit http://btcmsg.staticloud.com or http://btcmsg.ifreeweb.net
Alternatively download the site for offline use from http://btcmsg.staticloud.com/offline.tgz or btcmsg.ifreeweb.net/offline.tgz or http://btcmsg.4shared.com

The procedure is:
1. Write your message.
2. Click the "send email" button that creates a request. Send this request.
3. Pay the _exact_ amount of BTC to the given account.

Your message will be part of the block-chain within few blocks, which means instantly thousands of copies all around the globe forever.

* No registration required.
* Totally anonymous if wanted.
* Open protocol and basic python tools are included.
* Offline option.
* Client is signed to verify authenticity.

Basic technical details:
The clients are html+css+javascript only, and they are enough to read the messages forever (you can save the client locally for offline use).
The service for writing new messages requires the availability of an appropriate server, but the already processed messages are accessible forever, and some are already present on your copy of the block chain.
In order to write a new message, the clients create an email request which the server then processes.
The server is a special customised bitcoin setup behind tor.

More information?
* FAQ inside the client
* Twitter: https://twitter.com/btcmsg
* Blog: https://btcmsg.wordpress.com
* Later on in bitcointalk.

Be one of the first to place a message within the block-chain and touch the eternity now!
Be responsible for your messages and think twice before you write them, so you don't regret later.
They cannot be deleted! Recall that your grandchildren will be able to see these messages ...

The service is still in Beta, please check twitter for downtime announcements.
Further testing is still needed:
Requests sent by mail.yahoo.com and send-mail.org were tested. If you use other webmail services or local clients, support will be added on the fly. It may mean a short delay in the timestamp.
If a problem does occur, you will get your bitcoins back (well, except for the usual bitcoin transaction fee).
For the first few messages I will communicate with you private issues per email. It would be better if you send your transaction id in the subject. Also, keep your message aside for reference just in case.

Note:
This project is also an experiment with anonymity. I am trying to be an active entity behind a public service which gets even paid, without exposing my identity. If you do manage to know who I am or even get interesting details about me, please contact me directly per email using my pgp key. The details are in the client.


BTCmsg,
at your service.
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-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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