You create a wallet with two keys. One key is just like any other bitcoin key. You can use it to spend whenever you like.

The other key is timelocked and only works if you don't use your first key for some pre-specified length of time.

This is enforced by Bitcoin script on-chain, no third parties, no proprietary stuff. You can read more here: https://wizardsardine.com/blog/what-is-a-bitcoin-recovery-key/

Whatever bitcoin node Cashapp uses to verify coins that are sent to it is a "big node" in the sense that has a lot of opportunities to reject coins that don't follow rules Cashapp thinks are bitcoin rules.

We all rely on a node (ours or someone else's) to make sure that coins we receive are following Bitcoin's rules. If you only receive a little bit of bitcoin every once in a while, your node is "small" in that not very much economic activity will be affected if you demand coins that follow a specific fork. If Cashapp only accepts coins that follow a specific fork, a lot of economic activity is affected.

Replacing node with rules doesn't quite describe what is happening. If someone keeps their coins at a custodian, they don't really have much say over consensus changes, even if they do have a lot of economic activity. Similarly, if a lot of people rely on a specific node (say Mempool.space's node) or a certain public electrum server, the rules those people care about may not have much relevance (unless they are willing to spin up their own node to make sure coins they receive follow such rules). I think it does make more sense to talk about nodes rather than rules here.

New blog post: What is a Bitcoin recovery key?

(same as #986564, but now with this cool picture of a wizard sardine in a pool)

song is ai, images ai, clips ai, editing human

Nacho Bitcoin feat. Blackrock, Coinbase & Freinds

If the goal is making it so no one can have them, just burn the coins. Timelocks are great because they give you some control over when people access rather than preventing access all together.

It's certainly true that there is no substitute for practicing with small amounts!

It's not always a great idea to store key material online. This is one reason we like multisigs and timelocked recovery keys: if you store your keys separately and you lose one key or the backup, you can still recover because you have some fallbacks.

Many bitcoiners solve this problem by using an air-gapped hardware wallet. You run a node or a watch-only wallet on your internet-connected laptop, but it doesn't have any private keys. It can only see your wallet balance, not spend.

When you want to spend, you create a transaction with this laptop and then use QR codes or sd cards to transfer the transaction to your hardware wallet for signing. After your hardware wallet signs the transaction, you use the same method to transfer it back to your laptop to broadcast to the network.

BTCSessions has a number of Youtube tutorials on how to do this. It's worth checking them out.

Thanks for the great feedback! Your observations about confusion during the backup/recovery process really resonate!

The 65535 block limit on timelocks is a Bitcoin consensus thing. It may change in the future, but currently, relative timelocks cannot be longer.

The signup confirmation email for using our node should definitely include "Liana" - great point!

That's the thing: you always have to put it somewhere...

Do you worry more about the transfer method (making sure they get keys, descriptors, wallet info) or do you worry that they will be unable to figure out how to successfully recover the wallet?

exactly! just curious about general level familiarity with timelocks and what they can be used for.

yes, trying to figure out general awareness of timelocks

> put in the work and stack sats > make intricate treasure map puzzle to find keys > wife and family struggle for years but finally solve > still can't spend because sats are timelocked > darth chuckle