Hi everyone,

Given the recent discussions on projects that use the Bitcoin blockchain to record factoids, people on this list might be interested in the Virtual Notary project. Virtual Notary is essentially an online witness (aka attestor) to online factoids. It can provide:

  * proof of Bitcoin funds (without revealing public addresses or fund location on the blockchain)

  * proof of Bitcoin address ownership

  * proof of Tweet

  * proof of real estate value

  * proof of DNS ownership

  * proof of existence

  * proof of web page contents

  * proof of weather conditions

The factoids can be recorded on the blockchain (if you pay for the transaction with Bitcoin or PayPal), or they can be part of a free attestation chain that we maintain. The website provides a permanent URL to the factoids it generates; it also provides an X.509 certificate that you can download and keep safe in perpetuity, independent of the website.

The link to the website is here:
  http://virtual-notary.org

The link to the writeup describing the various factoids and their use cases is here:
  http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/06/20/virtual-notary-intro/

We are actively looking for people who are interested in developing the service further. Specifically, if you have suggestions for how to extend the service, for new proof/factoid types, or for how to build a business case around the core idea, please let us know.

Best,
- egs