Author: Eric Voskuil 2016-06-30 09:57:02
Published on: 2016-06-30T09:57:02+00:00
The lack of encryption in the Bitcoin network can lead to security issues and mass surveillance. This can have significant privacy impacts for SPV nodes, which can reduce the censorship-resistance of a peer. The bloom filter messages are unique aspects of the protocol as it pertains to SPV. The BIP cannot prevent MITM attacks and identity authentication will be defined in a forthcoming BIP. Privacy attacks would remain entirely undetectable under this proposal, and under any additional proposal that required authentication in the absence of identity. The transaction-posting security provided against a privacy attack, based on the assumption of "good" (identified) peers in the first few hops, derives entirely from the ability of the good peers to break the timing attack, which is itself "limited". The proliferation of node identity is the primary concern - this relates to privacy and the security of the network. Secondly, there is a risk of vulnerability introduced by the integration into the P2P network layer of an entirely new network security scheme. Thirdly, there is a concern about the cost of the above based on the belief that the benefit may not be material and that it may lead to increased centralization. Fourthly, there is a concern about users operating under a false assumption about the strength of privacy. Preferring trusted peers is another aspect of trying to break the timing attack. It's not clear how the Bitcoin community intends to establish what nodes are good nodes.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T18:56:57.538029+00:00