Author: Wladimir 2012-12-03 12:40:52
Published on: 2012-12-03T12:40:52+00:00
A proposal has been made to address the issue of a large amount of "dust" in the Bitcoin blockchain that is essentially useless. Currently, 11% of unspent transaction outputs (UTXO) are of 1 Satoshi (0.00000001BTC), and this number is constantly growing. The main source of these small payouts is Satoshi Dice. However, as these small transactions accumulate, they could eventually kill the size of the blockchain. In addition, the added fee often makes it more expensive to remove them. The proposed solution is to introduce demurrage, not in its normal meaning as a percentage over time, but as a means to recycle pennies over time. UTXOs age out if not re-transacted, with smaller coins aging faster. For example, 1-99 Satoshi lives for 210 blocks, while amounts above 1BTC live forever. This scheme will impose some lifetimes on colored coins as well. The aged coins are simply included in the block mining reward, creating another incentive for miners. If all coins are included in this recycling scheme, coins will never be lost forever. While the proposal addresses the issue of dust transactions, some concerns were raised about the need to re-transact coins to keep them safe from vultures, resulting in people frantically sending coins to themselves and expanding the blockchain instead of reducing growth. Others expressed their disagreement with putting hard limits and value judgments in the protocol.
Updated on: 2023-06-06T09:24:59.553536+00:00