
Show HN: Copy tweets to Bitcoin's blockchain for $9 - jotto
https://www.totheblockchain.net/
======
pavlov
"And on the blockchain, these words appear: My name is @ozymandiazz420,
Independent Thinker; Look on my Tweets, ye Mighty, and despair!"

~~~
nathell
The lone and level bytes stretch far away.

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nodja
Quite a cash grab.

Just use the memo.cash protocol and put it on the bitcoin cash blockchain for
a fraction of the price (you just pay the BCH transaction fee). You're limited
on the message size but the May 15 blockchain upgrade will increase the
OP_RETURN limit and put the limit slightly higher than twitter's.

[https://memo.cash/protocol](https://memo.cash/protocol)

~~~
snissn
but then your tweet won't live forever ;)

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kang
FREE method!

\- add @otsproofbot to your messages

\- the bot will reply with a message with text and embedded proof.

\- superior tech than OP

~~~
zachgray
nice hijack attempt.

superior tech is absolutely laughable - you're storing tweets to a private and
centralized database somewhere.

OP's writes them to bitcoin's distributed ledger where they are public and
permanent.

~~~
kang
To think bitcoin is a database is laughable.

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m00dy
Using OP_RETURN values is a neat idea. I wrote a thesis long time ago. (Using
Bitcoin Blockchain For Fun and Profit) [http://www.diva-
portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1051913/FULLTEXT0...](http://www.diva-
portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1051913/FULLTEXT01.pdf)

~~~
rosstex
Cool!

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marcoperaza
The ability to store arbitrary data on these widely replicated blockchains
raises some serious legal questions. What if someone puts illegal information
on the blockchain (e.g. nuclear secrets, child porn)?

Even if some level of _mens rea_ is required convictions, that is usually set
at "reckless" (meaning that you were aware of the risk but acted anyway). Once
there's a high-profile child-porn-on-the-blockchain case, it would be very
hard to argue that you weren't at least aware of the risk that such
information might be there. Even if the _mens rea_ requirement is "knowing",
that will still be a problem, as bitcoin miners and other savvy cryptocurrency
actors would have a hard time claiming ignorance of the immutable nature of
the blockchain.

~~~
vortico
Interesting question. For Bitcoin it would be difficult because of the small
amount of data (except for maybe 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88
C0), but what about i2p, IPFS, etc?

~~~
philipodonnell
There is a cost, but larger pieces of data can be broken into chunks and
stored on the blockchain. Some types of data are considered breaking the law
to possess it, regardless of whether it was intentional or how it was
acquired.

Can data broken up like that can be said to be in your possession if it is
never recombined? What if you don't know how to recombine it but a prosecutor
does? What if it is known to be recombinable but no one knows how to recombine
it?

Most blockchain people I talk to are worryingly dismissive of this as a
potential issue, including lawyers.

~~~
dane-pgp
Those questions are very thought-provoking, and here are a few more:

* What if someone with access to your house/bag/coat slips in a Micro SD card with an illegal file on it?

* What if you download a large video file as a torrent and it contains an illegal file embedded steganographically within it?

* What if your computer is storing a large, possibly random-looking, file, and someone can produce a "one time pad" which, when XORed with that file, produces an illegal file?

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erentz
Clearly BTCs on chain transaction fees are way too low right now.

~~~
mchristen
Gee, if only there was a simple and easy way to increase the capacity of the
BTC blockchain.

~~~
snissn
Bitcoin has 10x the throughput of bitcoin cash
[https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/transactions-btc-
bch.ht...](https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/transactions-btc-bch.html#1y)

~~~
mchristen
Nice try but throughput != capacity.

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bevan
Peepeth.com lets you "Peep" on the Ethereum blockchain for much less.
Disclaimer: I am the creator.

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n3d1m
And the point of this is?

~~~
tyrust
Answered in the "Why?" section of the website link on which you are
commenting.

~~~
analogmemory
Are there tweets out there worth archiving?

~~~
tekproxy
Yes.

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iampims
A while ago, I built a prototype that did something somewhat similar with IPFS
instead of blockchain. It also pinned the IPFS object automatically. It saved
the entire tweet minus all mutable attributes (user info, retweet count, etc).

I didn’t think of using a twitter bot for archiving, that’s clever.

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zocoi
What is the size limit other than a tweet? Can it be expanded to articles?
Also why? If twitter is down then I don't have the transaction id to look up
the content.

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guiomie
I wish I could think of clever things like this.

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ClassAndBurn
Really $9 for infinite storage is a deal.

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TazeTSchnitzel
Does the service not restrict this to your own tweets? This could be a
harassment tool potentially…

~~~
gkoberger
How? It's not like you're creating a billboard out of it... it'll be buried in
the blockchain, and nobody will ever see it (unless you link to it).

What makes you think this could be used for harassment?

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AlexCoventry
What fraction of miners accept non-standard transactions like this?

~~~
malvosenior
OP_RETURN _is_ standard. So all of them.

~~~
AlexCoventry
It's part of the standard, but atypical and consumes block space. So there
would be less incentive to include such transactions.

~~~
stale2002
If you pay the fee, miners will accept it.

The miner doesn't care about wasting blockspace. It is simply an auction,
where the highest payment per byte wins.

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rajeshpant
Thanks, i'll take a screenshot and store in google drive.

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codetrotter
Cool concept but also very nice logo. Who made that logo?

~~~
jotto
[http://logo.pizza/](http://logo.pizza/)

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ericb
What happens when bitcoin transaction fees spike again?

~~~
Boxxed
Then it will cost more.

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mpfundstein
GDPR anyone? lol

~~~
zachgray
lol yeah, gonna make for an interesting court case in 2030 when someone cant
scrub some heinous tweet from the blockchain :P

