Published on: 2013-08-21T15:10:55+00:00
Bitcoin developers are facing a shortage of testers and full-time contributors, leading to delays in implementing new functionality. In August 2013, Bitcoin developer Luke-Jr highlighted the need for more developers and suggested that people could contribute by testing existing features rather than adding new ones.Addressing the issue of privacy, Luke-Jr emphasized the importance of using single-use addresses. He explained that keeping change amounts as powers of two would harm privacy and potentially upset users. To address transaction fees, he proposed that they could be paid separately through small-bucket transactions.Luke-Jr acknowledged that it is already recommended to use a unique payment address for each transaction. However, he noted that merchants might consider using multiple addresses or coins as a privacy extension, although he questioned if it was urgent enough to be worthwhile.In response to a user's suggestion, the developers agreed that addresses should only be used once to enhance privacy and minimize the ability to trace transactions. They appreciated ideas such as using power-of-two amounts for transactions but cautioned that it may not necessarily improve privacy.While the use of unique payment addresses for each transaction is considered best practice, Bitcoin-Qt's "Receive coins" tab could be improved to discourage address reuse. The idea of merchants using multiple addresses or coins for a single payment was seen as a potential privacy extension, but it was not deemed an urgent issue.Another letter to bitcoin developers proposed enforcing discipline by trading only power-of-two amounts of satoshis in use-once wallets, except for public donation addresses. This approach aims to make tracking harder by reducing the ability to trace who does what. Although the specific discipline may not be the best implementation, the letter suggests that some form of discipline should be enforced to enhance tracing difficulties.The letter also suggests that merchants generate new addresses for each transaction, and customers send appropriately sized buckets of satoshis to each address. Establishing a standard way to specify an amount and a list of addresses as a payment target may require higher resolution QR codes. It is mentioned that this idea has been previously considered, but it is unclear if it was accepted or rejected.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T05:41:28.039053+00:00