bitcoin-dev
Purely off-chain coin colouring
Posted on: November 20, 2023 19:47 UTC
The discussion revolves around the concept of standardizing a method for commitments to be made within the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) framework, drawing parallels with Silent Payments.
It suggests that formal standardization would facilitate the development of additional protocols that could interact seamlessly with one another.
The concept proposes the use of signature R-values as Taproot-based public keys, allowing for the creation of commitments that would enable transactions involving the movement of coins associated with those addresses. It is suggested that these commitments be designed to accommodate arbitrary data, which could then be expanded upon in the future due to the nesting capabilities inherent in the 32-byte structure. This would provide the flexibility to extend commitments without altering the original foundation.
Furthermore, it's proposed to preface each commitment with an OP_RETURN operation to ensure that the commitment stays off-chain and is only stored and processed in that manner, thereby avoiding direct on-chain interaction. Lastly, there is a consideration of the consistent representation of R-values as 256-bit numbers, even in DER encoding. This consistency allows for the assumption of a '02' public key prefix in all commitments, streamlining the conversion process into valid Taproot addresses. This approach simplifies the treatment of commitments within the BIP context and can serve as a foundational element for future protocol development.