Send Message to the Future? Blockchain-Based Time Machines for Decentralized Reveal of Locked Information

Conditional information reveal systems automate the release of information upon meeting specific predefined conditions, such as a designated time in the future. This paper presents a new practical timed-release cryptography system that “sends messages in the future” with highly accurate decryption times. The core of the proposed system is a novel secret sharing scheme with verifiable information reveal, and a data sharing system is devised on smart contracts. This paper also introduces a breakthrough in the understanding, design, and application of conditional information reveal systems that are highly secure and decentralized. A complete evaluation portfolio is provided to this pioneering paradigm, including analytical results, a validation of its robustness in the Tamarin Prover and a performance evaluation of a real-world, open-source system prototype deployed across the globe. Using real-world election data, we also demonstrate the applicability of this innovative system in e-voting, illustrating its capacity to secure and ensure fair elections.