Hacker News Reader

Timestamping (which is actually what bitcoin is). For better or worse, this is one commercial application of it: https://guardtime.com/platform

View on HN

Guatemalan dev Rafael Cordon made a project called Simple Proof that leverages OpenTimestamps for election security.

It was used in the Guatemalan 2023 elections to timestamp tally sheets in different election districts around the country, so they can't be manipulated at a later time.

Timestamp.com is owned by a buddy of mine. Long before blockchain, we tried to build a company around being an SMTP relay and a special HP PCIe card that took the GPS signal as its source. The card was special because it was encased in glass and an inert gas, which could sense if it was tampered with. Ahh... the good old days.

....or, you just use the same timestamp mechanism available for code signing. Aka you ask a CA to issue a signed timestamp against a content hash and while you are at it, you can get multiple CAs in it.

The fact that there are other ways to work around previous limitations to accomplish something doesn't render the use-case invalid. The GP was asking for a usecase outside of currency and one was provided. If a valid use-case for electricity was asked, and someone described a lightbulb, you could just as well say "...or, you could just use an oil lamp"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com