# Publishing the VM image — the audit that must happen before it leaves the machine **The `.ova` is the artifact that converts *"we ran the 2009 Bitcoin client"* into *"anyone can."*** Everything else in this laboratory is a description of an execution; the image **is** the execution, handed over. ⚠️ **It is also the single most dangerous thing this project could publish.** A VM image captures a whole machine: wallet files, shell history, SSH keys, browser state, saved credentials, the datadir, deleted-but-not-overwritten disk blocks. **A published image with a private key inside it cannot be recalled** — it will be mirrored within hours and content-addressed forever. **So the order is: audit, then hash, then sign, then decide about distribution. Never the reverse.** --- ## ⚠️ FIRST, A CORRECTION TO THIS FILE'S OWN PREMISE — added the day it was written **The existing appliance is NOT a candidate for publication, and that was already decided before this checklist was drafted.** `OBL-BACKUP/05-vm/OVA-RECORD.md`, written 8 August 2026, records: ``` obl-r4-nodes.ova 23.8 GiB sha256 5C37A79ED31F53BD4D6AB6D5C645777C0869B309C4A59F25EB90E9EDEC249983 exported 2026-08-08 22:18:32 UTC, VirtualBox 7.2.14r174565 contains obl-r4-node-a and obl-r4-node-b as they stood after R4c ``` > **"Both guests carry `wallet.dat`, including the keys to the coins spent in tx `f4309c`… the > appliance is key material and is handled as such: it stays on that machine or on encrypted media, > never in a repository, never in a cloud sync, never published."** **That is the correct call and it stands.** This checklist was drafted as though publishing *that* image were the goal. It is not, and could not be — **a VM containing wallet keys is a secret, and no amount of hashing makes a secret publishable.** ### ⇒ So the reproducibility artifact is a DIFFERENT, purpose-built appliance ``` obl-r4-nodes.ova the RESEARCH appliance -- preserves the ability to RE-RUN the machine. Contains wallets. NEVER published. Already hashed and recorded. a clean appliance the REPRODUCIBILITY artifact -- a fresh guest with the binary, the (does not exist isolated network and the chain data, and NO WALLET AT ALL, built for yet) the purpose of being handed to strangers. ``` **Everything below applies to that second appliance when it is built.** The hash and manifest steps also apply to the first — and are already done — because a hash on record makes any copy that ever surfaces checkable, whether or not it is ever meant to circulate. ⚠️ **And the record names the deeper reason the research appliance must stay private:** *"it is also the only artifact that could later prove WHO ran the experiment. Anyone can copy a block file; only the key-holder can sign."* **Publishing it would give that away permanently.** --- ## STEP 0 — The scrub audit. Not optional, and not skippable because "it was a clean VM" Run these **inside the guest** before exporting, or against a mounted copy of the disk. ``` WALLETS wallet.dat anywhere on the disk, including %APPDATA%\Bitcoin\, the Recycle Bin, and any backup/ folder ⚠️ THE MINER WALLET HOLDS 64 KEYPAIRS. It must NOT ship. KEYS *.pem *.key *.asc *.gpg id_* .ssh/ .gnupg/ .radicle/ HISTORY PowerShell PSReadLine history, cmd doskey, .bash_history CREDENTIALS Windows Credential Manager, saved RDP/SMB passwords, any browser profile with saved logins NETWORK the seed node's address is public, but check for anything that reveals the HOST network or the operator's IP DATADIR decide deliberately: shipping blk0001.dat is GOOD (a stranger can verify the chain immediately). Shipping wallet.dat is NOT. FREE SPACE deleted files persist in unallocated blocks. Zero-fill free space before export or the "deleted" wallet is still recoverable. ``` > ### ★ The single check that matters most > ``` > After export, before publishing: mount the .ova's disk read-only and grep the RAW IMAGE > for the 64-hex private key and for the first bytes of a wallet record. Not the filesystem > -- THE RAW BYTES. A file deleted from the filesystem is still in the image. > ``` > **If that grep finds anything, the image is destroyed and rebuilt. It is not edited.** --- ## STEP 1 — Hash it, and publish the hash whatever else happens ``` sha256sum obl-jan09-node.ova ``` **Publish that value in the repository even if the image itself never ships.** It costs nothing and it means any copy that ever circulates — from a drive, a torrent, a colleague — is checkable against a value we signed. **An unhashed image in circulation is worse than no image.** ## STEP 2 — Manifest what is inside A reader must know what they are booting before they boot it. ``` OS build and locale the guest is Windows; state which build bitcoin.exe sha256 c3f15fc5b7bd80f4d08fe5ff356256214734eb1a3e4a7c953c9e8fc8453d2c7d -- the SAME binary bound in every run since block 2 chain state at export height, tip hash, blk0001.dat sha256 what was REMOVED wallets, keys, history -- named explicitly, so its absence is a stated fact rather than something a reader has to discover what was KEPT and why the datadir, so the chain verifies on first boot how to run it VirtualBox version, RAM, and that it needs NO network ``` ⚠️ **State that it needs no network.** The 2009 client's only peer-discovery mechanism resolves `chat.freenode.net`, which has not existed since 2021 — a reader who expects it to sync will think the image is broken. `addr.txt` beside `bitcoin.exe` is the supported path, and it is a v0.1.0 feature, not a modification. ## STEP 3 — Sign and anchor the manifest Exactly as every other artifact here: GPG + SLH-DSA + OpenTimestamps. ``` gpg --armor --detach-sign OVA-MANIFEST.txt openssl pkeyutl -sign -inkey -rawin -in OVA-MANIFEST.txt -out OVA-MANIFEST.txt.slhdsa ots stamp OVA-MANIFEST.txt OVA-MANIFEST.txt.asc OVA-MANIFEST.txt.slhdsa ``` **The manifest carries the image's hash, so signing the manifest signs the image** without needing to sign 23 GB. ## STEP 4 — Distribution `AUTHOR DECISION` ``` IPFS pin content-addressed, already used for releases, and the CID would BE the hash. ⚠️ 23 GB needs a paid pinning tier or a self-hosted node kept online. torrent free, durable while anyone seeds, and a magnet link is content-addressed too. Weakest guarantee of availability; strongest cost profile. on request publish the hash and the manifest; hand the image to anyone who asks. ⚠️ Costs nothing and reaches almost nobody -- but it is honest, and it is strictly better than the current state, where the hash is not even published. ``` > **Recommendation: do STEPS 0–3 now, and STEP 4 later.** The audit, the hash, the manifest and the > signature are the whole of the value that does not depend on bandwidth. **Publishing the hash > without the image is a real improvement; publishing the image without the audit is a permanent > mistake.** --- **Not money.** No premine, no token, no sale, no price. The image is a laboratory instrument.