Author: Quinn Harris 2013-05-21 03:46:15
Published on: 2013-05-21T03:46:15+00:00
The issue of double-spend attacks on 0-confirmation payments in the Bitcoin network is causing concern for those who rely on quick transactions, such as small businesses. Currently, a node will drop any second spend of the same output in the memory pool, but this is not enough to prevent double spend attacks. Quinn Harris proposed sending a double spend message with proof of the double spend but not the complete transactions, which would allow the receiving end to be quickly notified of a double spend while in no way increasing the chance that a double spend would be successful. Peter Todd has implemented replace by fee and is operating a node on testnet doing this.However, replace by fee would make what transactions get into blocks more predictable and eliminate any expectation of reliable 0-conf transactions. A more strict version of replace by fee could be implemented that only replaces transactions with ones that don't reduce any output quantity and accordingly require introducing a new input. Unfortunately, there is no way to make everyone happy on this issue.As Bitcoin becomes more established, the incentive to assure integrity may decrease, and increasing transaction volume is likely to increase node costs which would push out non-mining nodes with lower incentive more than mining nodes. Consequently, increasing block size would have a tendency to reduce the effectiveness of double spend notification. To fix the problem, it would still be important to work towards more robust solutions, notably various forms of 3rd party trust. This could be tamper-resistant devices trusted to not duplicate spends, 3rd party certificates with proof the transaction was spent by the holder of the certificate, or multi-signature transactions on the block chain that must be signed by a trusted 3rd party to spend. These solutions could take significantly longer for the companies and technologies to be built to implement this on a wide scale than adding double spend proof messages to the current implementation.Apart from discussing technical issues related to the Bitcoin network, the given context also mentions the Bitcoin-development mailing list. This mailing list serves as a platform for developers interested in the development of the Bitcoin network. Interested individuals can subscribe to it by visiting the link https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development.By joining this mailing list, developers can connect with like-minded individuals and stay up to date on the latest trends and advancements in Bitcoin development. Those who sign up for this mailing list can expect to receive emails from other members who are also interested in Bitcoin development. These emails can range from general discussions to more technical topics related to blockchain technology and coding.Overall, the Bitcoin-development mailing list is an important resource for those who want to stay informed about the latest developments in the Bitcoin network and contribute to its growth and development.
Updated on: 2023-06-06T17:44:17.621818+00:00