Author: Aaron Voisine 2015-03-11 22:57:43
Published on: 2015-03-11T22:57:43+00:00
The co-founder and CEO of breadwallet.com, Aaron Voisine, has expressed concerns over wallet seed interoperability. He argues that there is wide variability in the quality and security level of wallet implementations and platforms. Every time a user types their seed into a new device or wallet software, their attack surface and exposure to flaws increases, reducing their security level to the lowest common denominator. While Voisine acknowledges the need for a "fire exit," he also warns that fire exits can be potential entrances for intruders.In response to Voisine's concerns, Gregory Maxwell argues that complete compatibility cannot be expected or should not be expected due to genuine principled disagreements on how some things should be done. However, he believes that minimizing gratuitous incompatibility and reducing outright flawed constructions is the best approach. Maxwell highlights that there are genuine differences in functionality and that choices must be made among relatively good options.Ricardo Filipe suggests that wallets should not require instructions and that standardizing these things in BIPs could help achieve this. However, Maxwell notes that even with standardization, poor forward compatibility can still be an issue. The discussion took place on the Bitcoin-development mailing list in March 2015.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T18:10:15.016784+00:00