Author: Emin Gün Sirer 2016-02-26 16:05:20
Published on: 2016-02-26T16:05:20+00:00
A new idea for improving Bitcoin wallet security and deterring thefts has been presented at the 3rd Bitcoin Workshop in Barbados. The idea is to create vaults, special accounts whose keys can be neutralised if they fall into the hands of attackers, rendering their transactions null and void. This demotivates key theft by attackers who are less likely to attack in the first place knowing that they will not be able to get away with it. The operation is simple: money is sent to a vault address with a vault key and a recovery key. When spending money from the vault address with the corresponding vault key, a predefined amount of time must be waited before the funds are unlocked and can be moved to a standard address and spent in the usual way. If an attacker gets hold of the vault key, the owner has 24 hours to revert any transaction issued by the attacker using the recovery key. The technical trick relies on a single new opcode, CheckOutputVerify, which checks the shape of a redeem transaction. It is suggested that this could greatly deter Bitcoin thefts and comments and suggestions are welcome.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T04:10:16.694212+00:00