Good morning list,

Andy Schroder shared a mildly related link: 
http://andyschroder.com/DistributedCharge/

The above project does not use the Cryptographic Relay.
Briefly, it is a rentable charging station for electric cars.

I observed, however, that a rentable Cryptographic Relay device could be 
implemented using Cryptographic Relay features:

* Support for MuSig (by use of Schnorr signatures).
* Timelocks (by use of block header chains).
* Delegated operators.

> Suppose you own a Cryptographic Relay controlling a charger for electrical 
> cars.
> And I wish to rent this charger for some time so I can charge my electrical 
> car.
>
> This rental contract can be done by this ritual:
>
> * We generate two fresh keypairs.
>   * Call the first keypair the "rent-transfer" keypair.
>   * Call the second keypair the "rental-period" keypair.
> * You generate, but do not sign, a rent-transfer command to transfer 
> ownership from your unilateral ownership to the MuSig of our rent-transfer 
> keys.
> * We generate an initial backout command to transfer ownership from the MuSig 
> rent-transfer key back to your control, but with an `nLockTime` in the close 
> future.
>   We sign this command.
> * We generate a rental-start command to transfer ownership from the MuSig 
> rent-transfer key to our MuSig rental-period key.
>   I create a partial signature, missing only your share.
> * We generate a command to add me as a delegated operator of the device, 
> authorized by the MuSig rental-period key.
> * We generate a rental-end command to transfer ownership from the MuSig 
> rental-period key, back to your unilateral control, with an `nLockTime` equal 
> to the end of the rental period.
>   We sign this command.
> * Then, I create (but do not sign!) a rent-funding Bitcoin transaction for 
> the rent, paying to the Musig rent-transfer key.
> * We generate a rent-reclaim Bitcoin transaction spending the above 
> rent-funding Bitcoin transaction, sending the funds back to my unilateral 
> control, but with an `nLockTime` in the future but less than the timeout of 
> the initial backout command.
>   We sign this transaction.
> * You sign the rent-transfer command and feed it to the device.
> * We generate a rent-claim Bitcoin transaction spending the above 
> rent-funding Bitcoin transaction, sending the funds to your unilateral 
> control.
>   I demand an adaptor signature, such that I can learn your share of the 
> signature of the rental-start command.
>   Then I provide a partial signature to you.
> * You complete the rent-claim Bitcoin transaction signature, claiming the 
> rental fee.
> * I get the completed rental-start command signature and send it to the 
> device, transferring ownership of the device to our MuSig rental-period 
> pubkey.
> * I send the command to add me as an operator of the device, letting me use 
> the device as I see fit, but not transfer ownership to anyone else.
> * When the rental period ends, you send the rental-end command to the device 
> and turn it off so I can no longer use it.
>
> The above can probably also be done with the Bitcoin-side payments done via 
> Lightning-with-PTLC.
> It requires Taproot, but does not require `SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT`.

We can also consider the case where the renter of the device wishes to return 
it early, for a partial refund of the total rent (or equivalently, for the 
renter to rent in units of smaller time and just extending the rental period as 
needed).

> As the ownership of the device is in a 2-of-2 between the renter and the 
> "true owner", they can, after having a meeting of minds, arrange for an early 
> return command conditional on a partial refund of the original rent.
> Again, there is simply a need for pay-for-signature, with the renter 
> partial-signing a command to return the device ownership early, which if 
> completed by the owner, completes the signature to refund the original rent.
>
> Alternately, the rent may pay for a short rental period, and to extend the 
> rental period, the 2-of-2 between the nenter and "true owner" on the device 
> is "reseated" (i.e. fresh keypairs to generate a fresh 2-of-2 are created and 
> ownership transferred to the new 2-of-2) which invalidates the previous 
> timeout, and moves to a later timeout.
> The "re-rental" command which moves the ownership from the previous 2-of-2 to 
> the next 2-of-2 is partially signed by the renter, and to complete the 
> signature, the renter pays for the signature share from the owner.
> (this is done after setting up the command to make the renter a delegated 
> operator and the command to let the owner re-acquire unilateral ownership of 
> the device, I elide those steps here.)
> The pay-for-signature can be done over Lightning as well.

Now, suppose the device being rented out is in fact a smart domicile, which can 
be locked/unlocked by the owner/operator of a Cryptographic Relay.
Typically, when renting out domiciles, a deposit is involved, where:

* The tenant pays out the rent plus the deposit.
* The landlady may keep the deposit in case of egregious damage to (or other 
abuse of) the domicile.

The construction of a rent-with-deposit contract is actually similar to the 
construction of the earlier given collateralized loan:

> * The "loan shark" position is taken up by the "renter".
> * The "loaner" position is taken up by the "landlady" of the device being 
> rented out.
> * The "loan shark" also asks for a command to add them as a delegated 
> operator of the device.
> * Instead of the payback amount being larger than what the loan shark/renter 
> pays to the loaner/landlady, it is smaller, with the lower payback amount 
> representing the deposit.
>
> In this particular case, the contractors need not use `SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT`, 
> instead the landlady can give a PTLC on the deposit with the deposit being 
> funded from the loan payout transaction (which would be a rent+deposit-payout 
> transaction).

(note: missing in the above is the detail that at the end of the contract 
period, ownership of the device goes back to the landlady/loaner position, as 
opposed to the collateralized-loan case where it goes to the loan shark 
position.)

Perhaps smart contract languages should have PTLCs and partial signatures as 
primitives and be written in a compositional/declarative style, rather than 
some Turing-complete mess, because PTLCs are cool.

Regards,
ZmnSCPxj

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