Author: Erik Aronesty 2021-07-01 20:49:16
Published on: 2021-07-01T20:49:16+00:00
The Sabu protocol is a layer 2 solution that aims to improve Bitcoin circulation and privacy. Unlike Lightning, Sabu eliminates overhead costs of transactions by not requiring channel opening or closing fees. In Sabu, parties are not obliged to block money in smart contracts or any other m of n signature accounts on-chain, providing more privacy. Sabu also motivates people to circulate transactions in the network, ensuring anonymity by not disclosing how much money transferred from who to whom.The protocol is designed for mobile wallets to communicate directly with each other without a central server, resulting in pure peer-to-peer network architecture. Transactions between wallets are PGP encrypted. Security is maintained through guarantee transactions, which are sent to the Bitcoin network. Users can choose between classic architecture where mobile wallets connect to a central server or pure peer-to-peer communication. The protocol is transport-agnostic, but email is used as a user identifier and communicating tool, aiming to reform part of the internet architecture and make it more decentralized.Although there are some privacy issues, email is the only neutral, free, nonproprietary, and open protocol/technology for communication worldwide. The Sabu protocol allows direct-entry of a BIP-word-representation of a public key/address to avoid privacy/central system concerns. Users should always assume that the email system is fully compromised and only send public information over email while encrypting other routing data with public keys. End-users can verify public keys/addresses using QR-codes, phone calls with users reading BIP words out loud, or other in-person information exchanges. Separate the Sabu protocol from the app and allow others to implement desktop versions or other versions that use other routing systems.In terms of usability, the end-user installs the mobile/desktop wallet and adds friends to their phonebook by adding their email address or scanning their email (and/or PGP public key). The issuer creates debt documents (transactions) by promising creditors an amount of satoshi. These debt documents are valid Bitcoin transactions intended to circulate in the Sabu protocol instead of being sent to the Bitcoin blockchain. The UXTOs are always under the issuer's control unless the issuer or creditor sends the signed transaction to the Bitcoin network.The security model relies on guarantee transactions that require both issuers and creditors to cut a part of their output in favor of Bitcoin transaction fees. The miners will choose transactions with the highest fee rate, making it economically irrational for an issuer to cheat creditors and pay less transaction fees simultaneously. However, the risk of issuer cheating is still present since the transactions use the issuer's UTXOs, and only the issuer can sign and create them.In a recent post on the bitcoin-dev mailing list, James explains that when a transaction enters a miner's mempool, it does not immediately generate a block template. Instead, mining pools batch update their stratum templates/jobs for efficiency reasons, which can cause significant latency between the time a transaction is broadcast and when miners actually switch to mining on top of it.These batch updates serve as point-in-time snapshots of the mempool and are typically valid until the bitcoin network finds the next block. The proposal put forth by Raymo via the same mailing list seeks to improve Bitcoin's TPS and privacy. According to the post, this could be achieved by implementing a new consensus protocol called "TXP" that would enable millions of transactions per second while also improving privacy.The proposed protocol involves adding an additional layer to the existing blockchain structure, which would allow for faster and more private transactions. While James did not offer any specific feedback on the proposal, he did provide context around the practical considerations of mining and updating block templates.The bitcoin-dev mailing list is known for its technical discussions and proposals related to the development of Bitcoin, and it remains to be seen whether Raymo's proposal will gain traction or be implemented in any way.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T22:50:21.126114+00:00