bitcoin-dev

Combined summary - Anyone can boost - a more efficient alternative to anchor outputs

Combined summary - Anyone can boost - a more efficient alternative to anchor outputs

Peter Todd highlights the vulnerabilities in transaction sponsorship services, focusing on the potential for services to exploit users by replacing their transactions without proper sponsorship once payment is concluded.

This practice risks the reliability of such services, as users may not receive the support they expect for their transactions. Furthermore, Todd discusses a scenario where a service might sell the same transaction space to multiple customers, leading to conflicts and one party not receiving the promised transaction support. To address these issues and improve transaction sponsor block space efficiency, Todd references a thread at https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/improving-transaction-sponsor-blockspace-efficiency/696 which could provide insights into optimizing sponsored transactions while mitigating trust issues.

In another discussion from the Bitcoin Development Mailing List, the concept of Transaction Sponsorship, initially proposed by Jeremy Rubin, is revisited. This concept involves replace-by-fee-rate (RBFR) with a set minimum fee-rate ratio to counteract significant transaction pinning attacks. Despite concerns about denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, RBFR's implementation on Libre Relay nodes within the mainnet showcases its resilience against such threats. The mechanism promises new smart contracting capabilities beyond its initial purposes, demonstrated through Ark's use case that refines their connector output scheme. However, the effectiveness of this mechanism in broader applications remains debated, especially concerning third-party interventions in transaction mining and its impact on systems like OpenTimestamps.

Fabian draws a comparison between Martin's recent proposal and Jeremy Rubin's 2020 concept of transaction sponsoring, noting similarities but also potential structural differences. He stresses the importance of Martin delineating his idea's unique aspects to clarify how it improves upon or diverges from existing proposals. This could enhance understanding and foster further innovation within the community. Fabian emphasizes the value of building on prior knowledge and discussions, referring to an extensive mailing list thread from 2022 as a crucial resource for anyone exploring transaction sponsoring concepts.

Peter Todd introduces an alternative method to enhance Bitcoin protocols, addressing the limitations seen in anchor outputs and Child Pays for Parent (CPFP) methods with "anyone can boost." This approach allows for efficient fee boosting by including a transaction ID in a new transaction's annex, with the condition that both transactions must be confirmed in the same block to avoid network spam and DoS attacks. This proposal promises a more cost-effective and simplified user experience for boosting transactions, albeit requiring a soft fork for implementation. It considers the potential impacts on fee betting practices and the necessity for entities engaged in presigned transactions to prepare for the new boosting method. Todd's proposal represents a significant step forward in addressing inefficiencies in Bitcoin transaction processing, emphasizing the need for ongoing dialogue and development within the ecosystem.

Discussion History

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Martin HabovštiakOriginal Post
March 19, 2024 09:47 UTC
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March 19, 2024 14:10 UTC
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March 19, 2024 14:24 UTC
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March 25, 2024 01:36 UTC
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March 27, 2024 12:20 UTC