Knowledge Base

Browse the concepts behind Truestamp. Follow the links between concepts, or search across everything.

Tagged: bitcoin

Blockchain

Item Commitment vs Block Commitment The load-bearing distinction between Item Commitment (an item's item_hash becomes a Merkle-tree leaf in a finalized block) and Block Commitment (block hashes Merkle-rooted into an epoch whose root is recorded on a public blockchain such as Stellar or Bitcoin), and why a complete proof needs both. Public Ledger Explorer The public ledger explorer pages, no account required - the /blocks index and /blocks/<block_id> detail with commitment chain and proof downloads, the /entropy and /entropy/<observation_id> observation pages, and the real-time /timeline visualization of entropy, items, blocks, and commitments. The Epoch and Block Commitment How Truestamp batches many finalized internal block hashes into an epoch, builds one epoch Merkle root, records that single root on a public blockchain (Stellar via MEMO_HASH, Bitcoin via OP_RETURN), and gives each block an inclusion proof within the epoch as its Block Commitment.

Entropy

External Entropy Sources How Truestamp captures unpredictable public entropy from the NIST Randomness Beacon, the Stellar ledger, and the Bitcoin blockchain, folds each observation into a block's Merkle tree and commits it as a witness in each item's own fingerprint, strengthening the submission window guarantee.

Glossary

Bitcoin A public proof-of-work blockchain Truestamp uses two ways, capturing new Bitcoin block hashes as entropy observations and committing epoch roots into a transaction OP_RETURN output, which appears in a proof bundle as a commitments entry with chain bitcoin and a regtest, testnet, or mainnet network.

Library

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System Satoshi Nakamoto's 2008 Bitcoin whitepaper: a trustless peer-to-peer cash system using a proof-of-work timestamp server, hash-chained blocks, and Merkle trees to prevent double-spending. Blockchain-based Infrastructure for Proof of Existence in eGovernment Vizzarri (2020) CEUR paper proposing a Bitcoin blockchain proof-of-existence scheme for eGovernment documents using OP_RETURN hash records, contrasted with centralized, decentralized, and distributed trusted-third-party systems. Carbon Dating the Internet Archive with OpenTimestamps Peter Todd's primary-source account (May 2017) of timestamping about 750 million Internet Archive files with OpenTimestamps: SHA1 digests read from the archive's own metadata, aggregated through a calendar server into a Merkle tree, and committed in a single Bitcoin transaction. How Does OpenTimestamps Work (r/Bitcoin discussion) A Reddit r/Bitcoin thread explaining how OpenTimestamps proves data existence using SHA-256 hashes, calendar-server Merkle aggregation, .ots proof files, and Bitcoin blockchain commitment. How The Bitcoin Blockchain Is Fighting Fraud In Guatemala's Presidential Elections Bitcoin Magazine feature on Simple Proof, which used OpenTimestamps and the Bitcoin blockchain to timestamp Guatemala's 2023 election tally sheets, creating tamper-evident proof-of-existence records citizens could independently verify. Merkle tree - Wikipedia Wikipedia's reference article on Merkle (hash) trees: leaf and parent hashing, the root hash, logarithmic inclusion verification, Ralph Merkle's 1979 patent, the second-preimage attack, and uses in Bitcoin, Git, ZFS, and Certificate Transparency. Merkle Trees in Git and Bitcoin Initial Commit blog article explaining how Git and Bitcoin both use Merkle trees and content-addressable hashing to build tamper-evident, verifiable distributed data structures. OpenTimestamps OpenTimestamps: an open, free standard for Bitcoin-backed proof-of-existence timestamping (client-side hashing, calendar-server Merkle aggregation, .ots proofs), with a feature comparison against Truestamp. Taproot: SegWit version 1 spending rules (BIP 341) BIP 341 defines Bitcoin Taproot: SegWit version 1 outputs using Schnorr signatures and a Merkle-branch script commitment (MAST) with key-path and script-path spending. The First Blockchain or How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document Decentralized Thoughts article by Ittai Abraham on the 1991 Haber-Stornetta digital timestamping scheme: hash chaining, Merkle trees, trusted repositories, and its influence on Bitcoin. The Inventor of Blockchain Would Like a Better Bitcoin Blockworks interview with cryptographic-timestamping pioneer Scott Stornetta on Bitcoin's achievements and flaws: incomplete decentralization, mining incentives, lack of monetary privacy, and immutable record-keeping against AI deepfakes. Timestamping with OpenTimestamps, FOSDEM 2024 FOSDEM 2024 slide deck on OpenTimestamps: a decentralized, trust-minimized protocol that proves data existed at a point in time by Merkle-aggregating hashes through calendar servers and committing to the Bitcoin blockchain. Towards More Reliable Bitcoin Timestamps (arXiv) Short paper by Szalachowski (2018) showing Bitcoin block timestamps are miner-manipulable, and proposing external trusted timestamping authorities and SSL/TLS reference times to bound a block to a provable time window. Tsunami of Blockchain Technology and Patents: A Strategic Data-Analytic Overview ABA Jurimetrics (Fall 2023) data-analytic survey of global blockchain patent filing trends, the post-Bitcoin surge and crypto-winter cooling, US and IBM leadership, and Section 101 patent-eligibility strategy. Why and how Bitcoin uses Merkle trees - Applied Mathematics Consulting John D. Cook blog post explaining how Bitcoin organizes block transactions into a Merkle tree, storing only the root in the block header to enable logarithmic-size Simple Payment Verification proofs. Why do cryptocurrencies use Merkle trees instead of hashing all the data in the block in one go? Reddit r/cryptography discussion explaining why blockchains use Merkle trees rather than a single block-wide hash: inclusion proofs, SPV light-client verification, partial verification without full data, and second preimage concerns.