Author: Alan Reiner 2014-01-13 20:41:42
Published on: 2014-01-13T20:41:42+00:00
In an email exchange between Peter Todd and Alan Reiner on January 13, 2014, they discuss the differences between a proposal made by Reiner and the concept of stealth addresses. Reiner explains that his proposal involves distributing the root public key, but not the chaincode, of a BIP32 branch to receive payments. When someone wants to pay, the multiplier and root key are given, which allow the payer to confirm that the final address is derived from the known root key belonging to the receiver. Reiner argues that this scheme is essentially the same as stealth addresses, but without the complexity of creating new private keys or relying on third parties to search for transactions.Todd counters that stealth addresses use the blockchain as a low or no overhead communication channel, allowing the payer to give the payee the multiplier without bidirectional communication. Reiner acknowledges that his proposal does require sending the payer a multiplier once, but argues that it is easy to implement in any BIP32 wallet and achieves 98% of the benefits of stealth addresses without the added complexity. He questions whether it is necessary for people to be able to send payments without contacting the receiver or hiding evidence of the transaction.
Updated on: 2023-06-07T23:31:43.871844+00:00