Author: Joshua 2015-02-11 20:15:16
Published on: 2015-02-11T20:15:16+00:00
The email thread discusses proposals for secure and private Bitcoin transactions. One proposal involves using Bluetooth LE to transfer payment URI as a means of enabling proximity-based communication between parties. However, the conversation mainly focuses on security concerns that arise from broadcasting transactions publicly. In the first message, Martin asks about using a short authentication phrase to verify ownership of a public key and how to establish that secret over a public channel. The response from Eric explains that verifying identity associated with the public key is necessary, but if that's not possible, a shared secret like a secret phrase could be used. However, establishing that secret over a public channel can be problematic. Eric suggests bootstrapping a private session over an untrusted network using a trusted public key or decentralized Web of Trust (WoT), but these methods have their limitations.In the second email, Hector Chu proposes requiring a miner's signature in the block header as a solution to mining centralization. Currently, mining is centralizing to a handful of pool operators, which could hold users hostage and change the rules to suit themselves. Chu suggests requiring each miner to sign the block header prior to hashing and paying out coinbase to the miner's public key counterpart of the private key used to sign the block header. Natanael responds to Chu's proposal, stating that increasing technical trust requirements won't help as people already trust things like cloud mining. He also notes that threshold signatures or group signatures could possibly be used by an actual distrusting pool's miners.The last email includes an advertisement for the Go Parallel Website, sponsored by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, which is a hub for all things parallel software development.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T16:47:51.369921+00:00