Author: Eric Voskuil 2017-02-07 20:32:46
Published on: 2017-02-07T20:32:46+00:00
The Bitcoin network needs a supermajority of economic activity to be verified using full nodes operated by the recipient. However, at present, only about 10% of economic activity is verified this way. This creates issues with large scale privacy loss, weakened end-user security, and reduced access to the public network. Plans to mitigate these issues through strong identity may worsen the situation by restricting access to the public network. While there are C/S APIs against private full nodes, there are management difficulties and fundamental issues that must be addressed.All centralized interfaces to Bitcoin (wallets, web APIs, payment services) shrink the economic consensus and weaken its defense of sound and fungible money. The only solution is personally-controlled full nodes. However, for Bitcoin survival, reliable, cheap, and performant personal full nodes are essential. Getting there requires a node/server architecture intended for this outcome.There are two scenarios that could put us on a trend of increasing transactions originating and being received by personal full nodes, i.e. reversing centralization trends. One is appliances where an average person buys a "personal digital bank" appliance from an electronics store and installs it. The other is if tools are built to enable flexible usage of full nodes, allowing phone, tablet or desktop app interfaces with the full node.If there is any solution to this problem, it will need to recognize the fact that the supermajority of people on the planet are not technically savvy nor are they inclined to take the time to learn how to protect themselves with basic computer security much less how to use a full node for bitcoin transactions. Any solution will also need to recognize the fact that it will cost resources (time and money) to run a full node, and that there is a significant amount of work to do to have a functioning personal implementation of a node and to use it for transactions.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T21:18:22.699896+00:00