Author: s7r 2015-12-20 11:43:15
Published on: 2015-12-20T11:43:15+00:00
The discussion is about the effect on wallets if a private key for a dormant UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) older than the consensus-critical maximum UTXO age is imported using a full node. If the UTXO is not part of the cache, it is unclear whether the correct balance will be visible or it will show a 0 balance. The question arises as to where the balance will come from and where the proof can be obtained to ensure that the correct balance is shown. A proposal was put forth by Peter Todd for a consensus-critical maximum UTXO age to be included in the protocol, where UTXOs younger than that age are expected to be cached, and those older can be dropped from the cache but would require proof to spend. This proof would count as blockchain space since they need to be broadcast on the network. It is suggested that wallets should start generating these proofs now, and the max-age should be introduced later as a hard fork. However, there are concerns about “grandfathered” UTXOs generated in 2009 and the reversal of the minimization attribute of HD wallets.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T02:05:05.892062+00:00