Author: ZmnSCPxj 2017-12-14 03:24:07
Published on: 2017-12-14T03:24:07+00:00
The email exchange discusses a potential solution to the collective action problem inherent in fraudulent withdrawals from sidechains. The proposed solution involves using smart contracts to ensure collective action by recruiting accomplices and paying them cuts of the theft. The thief creates HTLCs (hashed time-locked contracts) paying out to the public key hash of potential accomplices, weighed according to how many blocks were mined by those accomplices. The thief then broadcasts the fact of the HTLCs existing, without negotiating with the accomplices. Thus, communication overhead is reduced to a single broadcast message, and the accomplice is faced with the choice to either participate in the theft or protect against the theft. The proposed solution is intended to reduce the cost of organizing collective action. However, it requires significant funds in reserve prior to theft to fund the Accomplice Contracts he or she will have to offer to potential accomplices. The vulnerability of this solution can be fixed if withdrawals are restricted to simple P2PKH or P2WPKH only.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T22:29:32.077778+00:00