Author: Billy Tetrud 2021-07-26 20:18:35
Published on: 2021-07-26T20:18:35+00:00
The discussion revolves around the potential for miners to manipulate fee rates in Bitcoin transactions and the impact this could have on the network. The cost of such an attack is estimated, with filling 15% of each block with self-pay transactions potentially raising median fees by around 5%. However, a large number of transactions would be needed to make up for the fees lost, making this type of attack less profitable for dishonest miners. The proposed use case for wallet vaults is discussed, which limits the amount that can be stolen via fees by attackers. However, it is noted that miners can still abuse the fee limit mechanism, particularly in multi-party scenarios. The idea of never allowing OP_CD to spend encumbered UTXOs to fees is suggested as an alternative solution, although this could complicate usability.The importance of considering every miner as a user of Bitcoin is emphasized, as users may also become miners or employ miners directly. It is suggested that griefing situations may be rare but it is important to be aware of the potential for attackers to work with a cartel of miners to raise the median fee rate and take all of someone's coins in fees. The idea of cartels being able to coordinate timing to reduce collective costs is also discussed.
Updated on: 2023-06-15T00:21:55.090931+00:00