Author: Bram Cohen 2017-02-24 00:49:01
Published on: 2017-02-24T00:49:01+00:00
In an email conversation between Peter Todd and Bram Cohen on February 23, 2017, the two discussed MMRs (Modified Merkle Trees) and UTXO commitments in terms of their usefulness in proving something is still in the unspent transaction output (UTXO) set. Todd argued that MMRs are redundant because you can prove something is in the TXO or STXO set using the actual blockchain, while Cohen believed that UTXO commitments provide benefits as they allow for a compact proof that something is still in the UTXO set. However, Todd contended that it is reasonable for full nodes to independently update and recalculate the UTXO set as part of their validation process, which cannot be done with a balanced version of the TXO set due to its size. Todd also warned against relying on proofs as a crutch for using the full TXO set, as this would exacerbate the problem of miners doing SPV (Simplified Payment Verification) mining and increase bandwidth usage for full validating nodes. Ultimately, Todd emphasized that MMRs need to be argued independently on their own merits before being used as a counterpoint to UTXO commitments.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T21:39:13.347319+00:00