Tutorial: Building a document timestamping contracts app in under 30 minutes
(Unfortunately, the video has been removed by the creator.)
Document timestamping is the process of proving that a document existed at a certain time, usually, without revealing the contents of that document to the entity doing the timestamping. Examples include financial reports, predictions about the future, invoices and so on.
By inserting a hash into the block chain using a special transaction output type, called an OP_RETURN output, we can build a timestamping app on top of Bitcoin. This video tutorial shows how.
The program saves proof files with a .timestamp extension: these proofs contain what’s called a Merkle branch. You can learn more about Merkle trees and branches at the official Bitcoin block chain developer guide.
Overview
The tutorial covers:
- How to start from the wallet-template app
- How to build a complex, multi-step block chain proof
- How to bind block chain state to the GUI
Get the code
You can find the code on github here: