Author: Billy Tetrud 2022-04-23 05:07:25
Published on: 2022-04-23T05:07:25+00:00
The argument that any change to Bitcoin must benefit all users is being challenged in the context of CTV (Consensus-enforced Transaction Validity) by some members of the Bitcoin development community. While Peter Todd's maxim may seem fair on the surface, it is difficult to argue that a change that benefits the majority of users, without negatively affecting a minority, is a bad one. The adoption of CTV could provide significant benefits to all users. Firstly, it would allow much easier and cheaper ways of improving security through wallet vaults, DLCs, channels, and other use cases. This would lead to societal benefits that grow the value of the Bitcoin network and on-chain benefits that reduce fees for certain utilities, leading to lower fees for everyone. Secondly, CTV would unlock wallet vaults, making it substantially easier and cheaper to hold funds in a multi-key vault, which could lead to increased self-custodiation by users. This would improve the decentralization of Bitcoin holdership, which is an essential part of Bitcoin's resilience, benefiting anyone who holds Bitcoin or relies on the Bitcoin network. Even if only a minority of users adopt CTV, it would still have a substantial positive effect for everyone. Regarding the argument against CTV, suggesting that more use cases mean more blockchain usage, which increases the price of a transaction for everyone, is incorrect. Neither the number of ways people figure out how to harness Bitcoin's existing capabilities nor the number or complexity of optional transaction types that the Bitcoin protocol supports has any bearing on transaction fees. Demand for block space from transactions, which is just plain use and not use cases, is what could drive up transaction fees. As designers of the system, the aim is to make Bitcoin so useful, appealing, and secure that there is massive demand for block space, even in the face of high transaction fees. Therefore, an increase in transaction demand due to CTV would be desirable. The argument that any change to Bitcoin must benefit all users is reasonable. However, in order to make practical use of that maxim, we must adopt a generic or model user and replicate them so that we may understand at least a proxy for "all users". In reality, there will always be someone who wouldn't benefit from a change, or at least thinks they won't. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that people have alignment of goals or vision just by virtue of being a 'user'.
Updated on: 2023-06-15T19:13:20.784111+00:00