Is there any plan to add a feature so that you can perform transactions that will be spent in the future and stored on the network? For example, I want to send some bitcoin to my kids after each N block so they will slowly receive a long time after I may already be dead. But I don’t want to send them the whole balance at once.
2 Answers
About the phrasing, there is really no "plan" on Bitcoin as there would be if a centralised authority governed the protocol. Instead, there are proposals and sometimes supermajority consensus for the network to deploy a proposal.
Regarding your question you can already do this today using the locktime features of Bitcoin transaction.
You can either:
- Hand your child a transaction with a nLockTime set to block X (so that the transaction cannot be confirmed before the block number X).
- Create a transaction which can be confirmed but cannot be spent before the block number X (
CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY). - Create a transaction which can be confirmed but cannot be spent before N blocks are mined after your transaction (
CHECKSEQUENCEVERIFY, relative locktime).
In either way (I omitted an even more involved one purposefully), you (and your child) definitely need a specific software to create and recognize this type of transaction.
Learn more (and get more links) on the Bitcoin wiki page about locktimes.
answered Jul 13, 2020 at 13:28
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without a process running over time that create these transactions, these methods wouldn't satisfy the condition "But I don’t want to send them the whole balance at once." So if he wants to send X BTC every year, if he generates these transaction now planning to distribute every year he need to spend everything now, that's not what he's asking for (if I've understood correctly the request). Commented Jul 13, 2020 at 20:52
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@NotImportant while you are right, I gave the general idea. Of course they can use 10 transactions with 10 different CSVs. I also think they were asking about if it was "doable on Bitcoin" rather than "how do I do with my grand-child now" as I don't expect them to code a wallet for this usecase. Commented Jul 13, 2020 at 23:27
It is possible to do that right now, but you would need a server running your Bitcoin wallet (with RPC daemon) + a custom script.
The script will see if it is time for the range of blocks you wish and then will send the Bitcoins to the addresses of your kids.
You could use a long term payment method to keep this server running with some processes to make everything running again if there is some internal issue in the server.
answered Jul 13, 2020 at 17:18
