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)