Author: David A. Harding 2021-08-08 21:51:01
Published on: 2021-08-08T21:51:01+00:00
In an email exchange, Jeremy proposed removing the dust limit from Bitcoin, but Dave argues that it should be kept. The dust limit is a policy in Bitcoin Core and other software that refuses to relay or mine transactions with outputs below a certain amount. Dave argues that larger UTXO sets increase the cost for full nodes to validate new transactions, which contributes towards centralization of mining. Allowing 0-value or 1-sat outputs minimizes the cost of polluting the UTXO set during periods of low feerates. Dust outputs can also be used in various authentication/delegation smart contracts. However, Dave believes it is reasonable to ask users to put up a bond to clean up their mess when they are no longer interested in their thing. Regarding dust-sized htlcs in lightning, Dave argues that channels should not be forced to operate in a semi-trusted mode, which has implications for regulatory classification in various jurisdictions. He believes that agnostic treatment of fund transfers would simplify this. Dave also argues that thinly divisible colored coin protocols might make use of sats as value markers for transactions. However, he believes the dust limit is not creating any real problems and should be kept to maintain faster, cheaper, and more efficient full nodes.
Updated on: 2023-06-15T00:49:21.594657+00:00