Author: Andy Parkins 2011-08-04 13:23:10
Published on: 2011-08-04T13:23:10+00:00
The proposal is to prevent double spending attempts on Bitcoin transactions by broadcasting a "MSG_DOUBLESPEND" message instead of silently dropping the transaction. This message would allow vendors to operate policies where they can wait for more confirmations or call the police. Miners can also reduce priority for transactions flagged in this way. The current solution is for vendors to wait for six confirmations before releasing goods, which is too long for most. The Bitcoin network is honest, and if a blockchain fork happens, the orphaned transactions get added to the pending transaction list again. A valid transaction will eventually make it into the longest block chain. New transactions propagate through the network and are dropped if they are not valid. In the event of a double spend attempt, one transaction goes to half the network, and the other goes to the other half. Whichever reaches a node first is seen as valid, and the second is rejected. The proposed method will prevent DOS attacks because the transaction has to be internally valid to result in a MSG_DOUBLESPEND.
Updated on: 2023-05-26T20:03:56.305728+00:00