Forest adventure through time
The following is a combination of a series of posts on Bitcoin Timestamps on Nostr that were originally made between 2024-10-11 02:10:29 GMT & 2024-10-12 13:57:20 GMT.
To everyone whose phone i have harassed with my nfc card that therefor now see this message:
This is actually a forrest picture channel
https://image.nostr.build/74358001cab02b32e4c6bb4af04714cb6f4ce69b190514dad330f52c397c665f.jpg
Amethyst now lets you create NIP-03, Bitcoin based Open Time Stamps.
Unfortunatly i cut off the timestamp that is part of the original version of this picture (because it is ugly), so you will never know this foto was taken on july 12, 09:54. 
#forestr
Everyone can timestamp everything at any time; the time-proof is valid regardless of who initiates its creation.
For example, at 01:37 on oct 12, I signed this kind 1040 event:
Which contains a proof that this kind 1 event can be tied into bitcoin block 865239:
Lunch date with @ at Mr. Porter Steakhouse
APPETIZERS
- Avocado Carpaccio with Beluga Caviar
- Mushroom Carpaccio
- Beef Tartare with Beluga Caviar MAIN DISH
- T-bone DESSERT
- Ribeye on the bone
#Foodstr #FoodPorn #MeatGirls 
And the timestamp of block 865239, is 00:02 on oct 12. The event itself claims it was signed 22:11 on oct 11; this may be a lie still, but at least it was not signed much more than 1 hours and 51 minutes later.
Aside from all these time related dates, the described lunch date could also just be a complete fabrication of course; at the very least the pictures correspond with the stated dishes
#woodpeckestr
Timestamps only give very weak indications of truth; but they are really good at catching certain lies.
Take for example the following note:
your client may have a hard time loading it, depending on when you look at this post. This is because the event claims to be signed at Thu Oct 17 2024 03:00:00 GMT. Given it is currently Oct 12, this is a blatant lie, and relays tend to not accept this event because of this.
But, what happens in 5 days? As soon we pass that 3 o’clock mark on oct 17, how would any outsider know that this event was not signed at that time, but 5 days earlier? It is easy to catch these sort of lies when you are present in real time and pay attention, but if you arrive after the fact, NIP-03 timestamps allow you to identify such a lie for certain if adequate proof exists.
And in this case, this proof does exist! Because I timestamped this event already, tying it into block 865274, which was mined around 05:31, oct 12. Which results in the following screenshot of Amethyst:
The app claims the event was posted ‘now’ (probably because it simply interprets any date in the future as ‘now’), but also tells me a timestamp exists that is 9 hours old.
Now this particular type of lying (pretending to be in the future), it not all that interesting, I was just curious. But it does go to show that you should not trust the time the event claims it was signed, because it is trivially easy to lie about it.
Say hello to my fren btw: 
Thus concludes my forrest picture presentation for now.
Time, such a fascinating thing, inescapably ever moving onwards. Winter is coming: https://cdn.satellite.earth/6761a5ff81c5a5ac3daa74e0d33cddf4912b770a13d272b933499839b5b03757.mp4
The reason is because Peter Todd (he came up with OTS in general) runs the calender server on donations.
But, timestamping things is superdupermegaultra cheap…potentially and relatively. You can timestamp millions of things at the same time by just putting a single hash into the bitcoin blockchain, due to the use of a merkletree. The individual proofs do get a bit bigger the more stuff you fit into the same tree, but in general all if this stuff scales extremely well.
The cost of running a timestamp server is a “problem”, but at the end of the day not really hard problem. Even if at some point onchain fees become really high, i recon the order of magnitude costs involved just require ‘someone’ or a group of ‘someones’ to foot the bill.
OTS is already used in elections at places (and proven usefull actually, you can look up those news stories). So if three countries and half a corporation spend the pocket change they found inbetween their couch cushions on it, it kinda funds the service for the rest of the world
Reply to Constant…
Is there any reason why I am able to do this for free? I read the timestamp message and it said about being link to a bitcoin block so someone somewhere has had to fork out for this service?
Reply to Yojimble…
clients should display the earliest/oldest one, and actually put in a bit of effort to see if any earlier timestamps exist. Anyone can create a timestamp of anything at any time (this is a feature and is because it does not matter where the timestamp came from, because the proof is the proof regardless), but that does mean clients should not be lazy about it.
There is a question as to whether we can come up with something better, because currently these kind1040 events just mean a whole bunch of overhead that has to be stored on relays somewhere, so it does bloat the network a bit. Its not the end of the world, but…you know…maybe there is a better way
Reply to Constant…
What happens in the case of a post getting time stamped multiple times? Will the oldest or latest get displayed?
Reply to Yojimble…
This is really interesting thanks @5ea46...da5bd!
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