On
Wednesday, September 19, a team of developers launched a platform called the
Open Savings Initiative. The application allows any Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and
Bitcoin Core (BTC) user to save funds in a time-locked address that cannot be
spent until a specific date and time has passed. There’s a new platform that allows people to
save BCH and BTC in a time-locked address making the funds unspendable until a
specific time. The Open Savings Initiative (OSI) is an
open source application that uses the opcode OP_checklocktimeverify to build a
custom pay-to-script-hash (P2SH) address. The coins held inside the address
cannot be spent until the predetermined timestamp with the lock-time parameter
is met. So essentially a user who wants to give 1,000 BCH to their son on his
tenth birthday but wants to lock up the funds until he turns 21 can do so using
the OSI platform. “We just launched this open source initiative to
offer anyone in the world a secure, time locked and trustless savings account,”
explains the project’s creators. Both
the BCH and BTC communities seemed to like the idea when the project’s creators
announced the OSI on each forum. According to the announcement, the platform was created by Factom’s David
Johnston, the Prestige IT team, Ransom Christofferson, and with guidance from
Yeoman’s Capital. Johnston also says the project was funded by a donation
from Ricardo Jimenezh and the OSI project is a “dream come true. “Ever since I joined the bitcoin community in 2012 I’ve seen
crypto as the ultimate savings account. One protected from inflation and built
on free market & sound money principals,” Johnston emphasizes. “I dreamed
of crypto providing a real alternative to centralized systems such as social
security which many rely on for longterm, time-locked income, in old age. OP_checklocktimeverify
and nlocktime have always been in the BCH and BTC codebase, but OSI now
makes it easier for any random person to use. The concept allows people to
create a decentralized trust fund that cannot be spent until a certain time,
but more importantly, without the need for a third party to unlock and
distribute the funds. Moreover, the Open Savings Initiative gives a
step-by-step walkthrough on how the platform works and how the opcode
OP_checklocktimeverify is used. Johnston recommends people test out the
platform and report any bugs on the project’s Github repository. There is one
thing to consider when creating time-locked bitcoin addresses — the issue of forks or blockchain splits.
During the announcement earlier today, one Reddit user
named r/jaimewarlock said there’s “a particular danger that should be
mentioned when it comes to time-locked addresses.” People may have issues
trying to spend the coins in a time-locked address on one side of a fork.
Jaimewarlock says he had a hard time when he had to split BTC for BCH and for
BTG as well and was forced to create his own tool.
