Author: Adam Back 2014-06-06 10:45:43
Published on: 2014-06-06T10:45:43+00:00
In a discussion thread, Adam Back and Peter Todd debated the privacy tradeoffs of prefix filters in Bitcoin. Adam argued that prefix filters have questionable privacy tradeoffs, while Peter countered that they offer better scalability than bloom filters and can efficiently query multiple servers for blockchain data. However, both agreed that prefixes weakened privacy by providing extra correlation hooks for elimination from the network graph of payments with mismatched prefixes. They also discussed the two types of privacy involved: privacy from the full node an SPV client is relying on to find its payments, vs privacy from analysis of the public transaction graph. The latter is more damaging, and Tor has changed recently to account for this. Additionally, they noted the importance of designing for privacy against future analysis of public info, rather than privacy by argument to select non-hostile nodes. Finally, they suggested that a more privacy-compatible solution to the problem may be worth figuring out before protocol implementation.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T23:43:55.224122+00:00