Address Expiration to Prevent Reuse



Summary:

In 2014, the concept of limited-lifetime addresses was discussed in a Bitcoin developer forum. The idea involves creating an address that has a set expiration date, making it reuse-proof with minimal resource requirements. The proposed address format includes a unique identifier consisting of the last valid block for a transaction paying the address. To ensure the address's uniqueness, blocks containing transactions that have previously paid the address would be invalid. Additionally, blocks containing transactions with a locktime beyond the address's validity duration and those exceeding the expiration block would also become invalid by consensus. While this is not a concrete proposal, it presents an intriguing idea for improving Bitcoin's security and efficiency.


Updated on: 2023-06-09T18:56:25.135360+00:00