Today I was updating one of my files where I store invoice information, and I thought about storing an additional backup of the file in case my hard drive crashes. I already use Apple's Time Machine backup feature, but I thought it would be fun to try something a little different as well.

Why not put it on the blockchain?

One thing to consider when backing up a file to the blockchain is it becomes publicly available to everyone. An easy workaround is to encrypt the file first. That brings up an additional concern if the file contains data which needs to remain secure for many, many years. Some encryption mechanisms become obsolete and vulnerable as computational power increases. That means if you put an encrypted file on a blockchain which lasts forever, at some point in the future that file may be deciphered by someone with a strong enough computer (or a quantum approach we haven't yet imagined).

In this case, it's just invoice information, so no big deal.

For those not familiar with GPG (and even those who are, there's always plenty to learn), I found this GPG Tutorial by Digital Ocean has a lot of useful information.

To decrypt my invoices file so I could back it up on the blockchain, I used this command:

gpg -a -o privex_invoices_2018-02-23.asc --symmetric privex_invoices.txt

(Note: I already added cipher-algo AES256 to my ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf to avoid WARNING: message was not integrity protected warnings.)

The -a part is important as that ensures I get text output instead of binary output. It prompts me for a password which I generate with 1Password (my password manager) and store there securely.

If I ever want to decrypt the file, it's as simple as:

gpg -o privex_invoices_decrypted.txt --decrypt privex_invoices_2018-02-23.asc

Here's the contents of privex_invoices_2018-02-23.asc which I'm now storing on the blockchain as a backup:

Now, if I ever lose the original file or accidentally delete it, I can now recover the information using the encrypted data stored forever on the blockchain.

Pretty cool, right?

Online privacy, encryption, reputation, and identity are important topics which have to come out of the "nerd realm" and into every-day society. This stuff really matters because if we begin building a voluntary society using smart contracts without government and their threats of violence for compliance, then all participants will have to require high levels of personal responsibility. For more on that, see Privacy, Identity, and Human Flourishing.

Unfortunately, this stuff is still pretty complicated. Programs like https://keybase.io/ make it a little easier, but the more we trust layers on top of the core encryption tools, the more vulnerabilities can be introduced. There's often a conflict between making things easy and keeping them secure.

I hope this post at least reminds you of the importance of securely backing up your files and exploring tools like GPG to control your own data security.

Luke Stokes is a father, husband, business owner, programmer, STEEM witness, and voluntaryist who wants to help create a world we all want to live in. Visit UnderstandingBlockchainFreedom.com

_{I'm a Witness! Please vote for @lukestokes.mhth}

Securely Storing Data Backups on the STEEM Blockchain

Why not put it on the blockchain?