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Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:44:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: bgroff@lavabit.com
To: "Gavin Andresen" <gavinandresen@gmail.com>
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Cc: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] [PULL] Add scriptPubKey enforced
 sendescrow and redeemescrow API calls
Precedence: list

Gavin wrote:

> It would be spiffy to publish a new type of bitcoin address that is an
> "m of n address", that anybody could pay into, but would require m of
> n signatures to spend.  Publishing a really really long address with
> all n public keys would work.

Here's a strawman use-case for a browser centric flow for a 2-of-3 scenar=
io.

Funding:

* User is on Merchant site on the checkout page
* User selects a transaction Observer (I'm trying to get away from using
the word escrow, because the funds are not held by the third party)
* Merchant redirects to the Observer, passing in the Merchant's payout
address
* The User enters User's address
* Observer presents multisign address
"2,merchant-addr,user-addr,observer-addr" and terms and conditions - i.e.
under what circumstances the Observer will sign
* User copy/pastes the multisign address to their bitcoin client and send=
s
funds
* After some blocks go by, merchant ships

Redemption:

* Merchant reminds User to release funds
* User creates a partial tx paying out to merchant-addr and emails or
copy-pastes to Merchant
* Merchant signs and publishes the tx

Funding requires two pastes and redemption requires one.  A browser
plug-in would reduce the User effort to a couple of confirmatory clicks -
"do you want to send X BTC to Merchant Y with Observer Z?" and "do you
want to release X BTC to Merchant Y?".

--
Bobby Groff