Smart Stellar - Timed Payments

tim

--- Update on 12. December 2018 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New design and changed user interface: https://smartstellar.org

For legal reasons I only activated the testnet-version. Let me know if you
like it. I tried to keep it as userfriendly and simple as possible.

--- Original Post ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody,

after I checked all services and wallets, I don't see any implementation for time based transactions. I know you can add time bounds on the stellar laboratory, but I'm talking about an easy non technical user interface. I decided to implement that now. This will include

1) web wallet with login
2) user interface to select destination address, amount of tokens and time the transaction should happen
3) security: no private keys will be stored on the server

Important: if anybody knows a working time based service please let me know, I don't want to rebuild something existing

dzham

To some extend I think no one has bothered with it because most of these transactions are quite meaningless outside of the context of the app/protocol that created them.

E.g., if you're doing an atomic cross-chain swap, you have a timelocked payment op, but if you actually submit it or not is dependent on external input.

tim

hmm, so you think there is no need for reccuring payments. Isn't that a basic feature of bank accounts? E.g. getting payed the monthly salary or paying the flat rent? Also the repeated distributing of tokens to selected group of addresses could be possible with that.

Anybody else who sees usecases with this functionality?

dzham

tim

Bank accounts are pull, crypto is push.

I think you're better off thinking of a protocol for payment requests, or invoices.

You can give someone a timebound transaction, but there's no way (outside of setting funds aside in escrow) to guarantee that there are funds when the time comes. With a post-dated check, you can take someone to court over it, but what do you do with an unbacked transaction?

tim

Hi dzham,

thanks for feedback, as crypto is push, the server needs to push the tokens at the right time. Maybe I can make it more clear with the following description:

Usecase: As a user I want to transfer tokens form a certain account ACC1 to another account ACC2 every month automatically.
Sample: I want to send 800 US$ every month to my land lord. I will create a XLM- Account with 9600 US$ for the next 12 month. I will presign 12 transactions with according timebounds. The server will submit the transactions every month.
If there is not enough money on the account the transaction fails. Then the landlord will contact me and ask what happened, as it would be with a normal bank account.

Special Case: If you want to make sure there is enough money on the account, we could create a escrow account, sign all transactions with the escrow key and then remove the user key from the signers. This means the user has no access any more to this account.

We also can have a chat if you like, email me at contact(at)stellarkitty.com

dzham

tim

What I mean with push is that nobody can take anything out of your account without you signing for it.

I understood your use cases the first time over.

If there's not enough funds in the account when your presigned transactions is due, what benefit does it really have?
If the solution for that is escrow, why would I want a solution that's worse for me as a user, i.e. locks up my money for months -- A check doesn't do that.

tim

The benefit for me as a user is I don't have to do the transactions manually every month. The same functionality I have with my current bank account. I think its good to have and I didn't find it with Stellar so far. And yes the user has to presign the transactions.

Regarding the escrow version, this would be a additional variation, but is not relevant.

tim

Hi, this is my first interface approach. I will proceed with programming the next days and hope to have a beta version on testnet soon.

https://stellarkitty.com/images/timed-payment.png

tim

As described above I developed a timed based payment service on Stellar.
Have a look at https://smartstellar.org
I defined 2 test accounts you can use for testing (displayed on webpage).

Let me know if you like it and if you have suggestions.
I'm also looking for partners to get this functionality more known.

Vijay

Hi Tim,

Nicely done.

In case you want to do more than a prototype, "define payment" should support localization (date format, workdays, timezone, ...)

tim

Vijay yes, date format could be adjusted, workdays is already possible, regarding timezone, is not necessary in my view as there is no time to be set, only a date.

tim

Hi everybody, here is my update regarding the challenge.

As announced some weeks ago I managed to create a service
for time related payments. Have a look at: https://smartstellar.org

For legal reasons I only activated the testnet-version. Let me know if you
like it. I tried to keep it as userfriendly and simple as possible.

Anybody is welcome for testing.

tim

Hi all, Smart Stellar will also support StellarGuard functionality, which means multisig accounts registered with stellarguard.me can be handled in the future. This adds a siginificant security level on the service.

Thanks to @StellarGuard for adjusting and expanding the api.

tim

Hi all, I made an update on my application. New Design and easier userinterface.
Let me know what you think!

https://smartstellar.org

bet1102

Dear tim,
Can you launch live net on smartstellar.org?
I really like your idea, Very helpful with my customers

Crypt0Pro

Good job Tim! Thanks for the update