Published on: 2013-03-10T08:18:57+00:00
In this email conversation, Daniel Lidstrom discusses the importance of censorship resistance in Bitcoin as it scales. He emphasizes the need to preserve privacy when using Bitcoin to avoid being censored by miners. This can be achieved through anonymous connections, not reusing addresses, and mixing coins. Lidstrom believes that privacy preservation should become automatic in the future.He argues that anonymity systems should scale to accommodate Bitcoin full nodes, rather than Bitcoin staying small to avoid putting pressure on anonymity systems. If anonymity systems don't scale enough, mining in a pool is an option. There will always be countries that allow mining pools to operate, and miners in countries that ban Bitcoin can connect to these pools anonymously.However, centralized validating nodes and mining pools present a challenge for avoiding censorship. Lidstrom states that there aren't any clever technical ways to avoid censorship if these entities are centralized. He also mentions a paper on integrating Chaum-style privacy with Bitcoin using zero knowledge proofs, but notes that it is too slow and complicated to integrate practically.The conversation also touches on the argument that large blocks make it easier for authorities to censor transactions. The author suggests analyzing block sizes based on improving technology while considering the impact on censorship resistance. Despite concerns about censorship, a high number of validating nodes in Bitcoin makes discouraging unwanted traffic difficult, indicating strong censorship resistance.Another point raised is the vulnerability of auditable off-chain transaction systems. Trustworthy systems require some on-chain transactions to be publicly known for auditing purposes. However, censorship is still possible, as miners choose what transactions to accept into blocks. Transaction volumes make running a validating node more expensive, leading to decreased independent pools. Small blocks, on the other hand, allow for lower barriers to entry for miners and the possibility of mining anonymously behind anti-censorship technologies like Tor.Overall, the conversation highlights the challenges and potential solutions for maintaining censorship resistance as Bitcoin scales. Privacy preservation, scalability of anonymity systems, and the role of validating nodes and mining pools are key considerations in this regard.
Updated on: 2023-08-01T04:28:32.414169+00:00