What Is The Project Registration Database?
The Project Registration Database is a project to build a central record of experiments and projects before they implode and no one wants to write about them at all. Right now it's meant to be used by members of the LessWrong Diaspora, but in theory there's no reason it couldn't serve a wider audience.
Contents
Features
Search - This wiki site's standard search feature indexes the entries, letting you do full text search over them.
Blockchain Backing - To help fulfill the core function of a preregistration database, we've implemented trusted timestamping with OriginStamp.
RSS - An RSS feed of entries is available.
Frequently Asked Questions
What sort of project is eligible?
The following types of project are eligible:
- Broad scale community projects such as FortForecast, Kernel, or Origin.
- Experiments, like the kind Gwern Branwen does.
- Organizations which are at least loosely affiliated with the Diaspora targeting broadly community-aligned goals. For example MetaMed.
- Other things which seem like they should fit into the broad parameters of the form which the target demographic for this database would be interested in.
So what should I know before I use this?
You should be familiar with the general concept and purpose of a preregistration database. The quality of your entry will probably be significantly improved if you answer the questions on our project litmus test page before filing.
How does this trusted timestamping business prove I made an entry?
It doesn't. By default our database does not prove the identity of a filer (this is impossible to do in a simple web form). If you would like to be able to prove you're the one that submitted a particular entry, or remove the ability for you to claim you didn't make an entry later, you should either sign the entry yourself with a cryptographic key or have a trustworthy witness do that for you. If you do not have a trustworthy witness who is familiar with public key cryptography, the administrator of this database is willing to perform some witness functions for you by request. Email jd [snail] fortforecast [period] com for more information.
Who is sponsoring this?
This database is sponsored by FortForecast.
Why preregister?
Well, it helps us keep track of what's being tried in the community. It stops the selection bias where only successful ideas are reported. Knowing about the things that didn't work is important but harder to record once the lack of success is known.
Sounds nice, but what's in it for me?
In general how I would like the incentives to work is that when you register, that makes you more likely to get assistance and recruits for whatever you're doing. If you're taking some kind of useful action towards a broadly community-aligned goal, that's good and you should let us know so we can help you. Right now towards this end we've added an RSS feed that interested parties can follow. In the future we're looking at trying to build up a support network or workshop that will help you if you register with a well formed idea and credible movement towards working on it.
This process is also meant to help organize your project for success. A large part of why I'm doing this is that I want to get people in the habit of putting the contact info for their project out there, and if their project doesn't have contact channels, creating them so we can interact. Letting people know where to go for updates will help build the audience and engagement that will keep you going through the rough periods. Ideally it will also make you more credible if people reading your success stories know you're not shy about the ones which aren't quite as fun to crow about.
That whole blockchain bit seems like way too much complexity, why?
Because it's easy, adds value and there's no real reason not to. Seriously, this is like a handful of days of extra effort to implement on a project that would otherwise be an arbitrary web form. Nothing is lost by doing it, quite a bit is plausibly gained.
How do I verify a timestamp?
Timestamps can be verified through the following steps:
- Go to the page of the entry you want to verify.
- Click 'source' to get the exact PmWiki source code of the page, do not use the displayed text or you'll get the wrong hash.
- Use the sha256 sum generation tool of your choice. I usually use the 'sha256sum' command line tool on my Linux install, but any correct implementation should work.
- Take the hash you get and put it into OriginStamp's verify functionality.
- You should see that the ultimate Bitcoin timestamp is within about 24 hours of the date specified in the entry, and that the date submitted is much closer. If the hash has never been submitted before this is a serious red flag that something has gone amiss.
Blockchain Backing
You may have read that this database is blockchain backed and wondered precisely what that means. The short version is that each entry is hashed, and then submitted through OriginStamp to the Bitcoin blockchain. However just as likely your question isn't how this is done so much as why. The long answer then is as follows.
| Why Trusted Timestamping For A Preregistration Database |
Theoretical Motivation: To prove that an administrator of a preregistration database has not modified entries in a way which favors a party since their submission.
Practical Motivation: I have a handful of practical motivators for solving this problem.
