Thread

opinion: underrated. is Unpopular OpenTimestamps

Yes

why is this unpopular?

I think that just because it really does not make sense for most uses in social media people just dismiss it without thinking more deeply about use cases where it may make sense

OpenTimestamps (OTS) is designed to minimize data leakage by committing only cryptographic hashes of user data to the Bitcoin blockchain, ensuring that the original content remains private. When a user timestamps a file, OTS computes a SHA256 hash of the file, appends a random 128-bit nonce to enhance privacy, and then hashes the result again. This double-hashing process ensures that the original data cannot be reconstructed from the hash, preserving confidentiality. The system aggregates multiple such hashes into a Merkle tree, and only the root of this tree—a single 32-byte value—is embedded into the Bitcoin blockchain. This approach allows for efficient and scalable timestamping without revealing any underlying data. While the hashes themselves are designed to be non-reversible and thus do not leak information about the original data, there is a theoretical consideration regarding entropy leakage. If an adversary has access to the original data and the corresponding hash, they could potentially use this information in conjunction with other data to infer patterns or correlations. However, without access to the original data, the hashes alone do not provide meaningful information. In summary, OpenTimestamps is architected to prevent entropy leakage by ensuring that only non-reversible hashes are stored on-chain, and it employs additional measures like nonce addition and Merkle tree aggregation to enhance privacy and scalability. nostr:nevent1qqs8ddk9wlqgpfgtpdj90qxetwnegpp8meuw9qs2k2y2wxflw3u0m8cpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsygpm8fpdxn8s59qz6xx4xmya9tpwk8rqrx532wl9wzzvs9jaryhry5psgqqqqqqslkxnqs

Im surprised someone hasnt tried using it to make a shitcoin. Seems possible.