Author: Tamas Blummer 2019-07-28 14:17:35
Published on: 2019-07-28T14:17:35+00:00
The discussion on the Bitcoin-dev mailing list involves the risks associated with time-locked bitcoins, especially for long periods. David A. Harding highlights two major risks - inability to sell fork coins and possible inability to transition to new security mechanisms if a major weakness is discovered in ECC or a hash function. An alternative to timelocks could be coin age which refers to the value of a UTXO multiplied by the time since that UTXO was confirmed. Coin age is sybil-resistant and more flexible than script-based timelock. It is verified using the UTXO set and does not require any particular script. However, there is currently no SPV-level secure way to prove to lite clients that an output is still unspent. A long-term holder of bitcoins can buy time-locked fidelity bonds essentially for free, assuming they never intended to transact with their coins much anyway. This proposal provides significant sybil resistance.
Updated on: 2023-06-13T20:22:09.257239+00:00