New technological directions in Bitcoin

Giacomo Zucco

@giacomozucco

giacomo@bhb.network

BITCOIN IS GREAT

  • Mix of great tech: P2P/OS + DS + PoW + BC
  • Digital scarcity without intermediaries
  • Censorship resistant transactions
  • Independent Store of Value
  • Global, open, permissionless innovation

BUT IT HAS ITS OWN CHALLENGES..

SCALABILITY

PRIVACY

&

SCALABILITY

Problems:

  • Blockchain -> Global consensus

  • High running costs for nodes -> Centralization

Solutions:

On-chain scaling?

On-chain scaling

  • Cost optimization
  • Technological growth
  • Political Independence guarantees

NOT REALISTIC

You lose decentralization

Solutions:

Different designs?

Different designs

  • MimbleWimble
  • ProofChains
  • DAG/Tangle/Braiding

Highly Experimental

Solutions:

Off-chain scaling?

Off-chain scaling

  • Trusted third parties (PoR?)
  • Disposable Hardware (e.g. OpenDime)
  • Trusted Hardware - Sidechains (Liquid?)
  • Schnoor Signatures
  • MAST/Taproot/Graftroot
  • TumbleBit hubs

Lightning Network

Lightning Network

1626 Nodes
8981 Channels
around 108 BTC

PRIVACY

Problems:

  • Blockchain -> Global consensus

  • Everything is in clear text

Solutions:

On-chain privacy?

On-chain privacy

  • Ring Signatures / Confidential TXs
  • zk-SNARKs / zkBoo / zkSTARKs
  • Bulletproofs

Tradeoff with scalability

Solutions:

Different designs?

Different designs

  • MibleWimble
  • ProofChains
     

As before, experimental.

Solutions:

Off-chain privacy?

Off-chain privacy

Useful for scalability too:

  • Disposable Hardware
  • Trusted Hardware - Sidechains (e.g. Liquid CTs)
  • TumbleBit
  • MAST/TapRoot/Graftroot
  • Schnoor Signatures (Incentive for CoinJoin)
  • Lightning Network (Payment channels w/ Onion Routing)
  • Chaumian CoinJoin / ZeroLink
  • STONEWALL
  • Dandelion
  • Encrypted Peers - Blocks (BIP 150/151)
  • Compact Client Side Filtering (BIP 157-158, Neutrino)

QUESTIONS?

Zucco-NewTechnologicalDirectionsInBitcoin

By giuzzilla

Zucco-NewTechnologicalDirectionsInBitcoin

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