Author: Billy Tetrud 2022-08-04 01:16:52
Published on: 2022-08-04T01:16:52+00:00
In a Bitcoin developer mailing list, Dmitry Petukhov raised concerns about the use of tuples of length more than two in Bitcoin wallets. Petukhov argued that indexes beyond 'receive' and 'change' are not established, leading to various software using extra indexes in a tuple for their own non-standard purposes. This could create incompatibilities where different wallet software that import the same descriptor would use those addresses for different purposes. Even if some auxiliary standard emerges for the meanings of extra indexes, all software will need to be aware of these purposes and define indexes for them. Wallet software that wishes to utilize non-standard extra indexes beyond 'receive' and 'change' should use separate descriptors instead for these extra indexes. Petukhov suggested that defining the conventions of derivation path indexes should be a separate BIP, as this is outside the scope of the current BIP-multipath-descs. Andrew Chow had updated the BIP text to allow arbitrary length tuples, which Pavol Rusnak supported. While there may not be any immediate use case for this, it would allow for future standards to introduce more sub-paths. However, Petukhov argued that even with generalized tuples, any interpretation of the purpose of such indexes and deriving new addresses at these indexes are strongly discouraged. When a new established purpose emerges for the next position in the index tuple, a new BIP should be made that defines such position. The BIP for position 3 would naturally come after the BIP for position 2, ensuring that software that implements BIP for position 3 would be aware of the previous BIP and choose some index for position 2.
Updated on: 2023-05-22T20:49:22.738952+00:00