While developers are improving the software they cannot force a change in the Bitcoin protocol because all users are free to choose what software and version they use. The system still requires the buyer trust the merchant, as the merchant could deliver encrypted junk instead of the actual data (i.e., this proposal isn’t trustless like a zero-knowledge contingent payment), but the proposed protocol can allow the buyer to begin downloading data while the payment is still being processed. ANYPREVOUT opcode to implement behavior similar to that proposed by drivechains. ANYPREVOUT (APO) as proposed in BIP118. 190) described how some other flexible proposed additions to Bitcoin’s contracting language could also allow the implementation of drivechains. ● lnd v0.16.0-beta.rc1 is a release candidate for a new major version of this popular LN implementation. ● LND 0.15.5-beta.rc2 is a release candidate for a maintenance release of LND. Prior, LND already supported importing Base64-encoded PSBTs either as plain text or from file. BIP174 specifies that PSBTs may be encoded either as plain text Base64 or binary in a file. The route may include a route leading up to the user’s node plus additional hops going past it.
● Mempool variability: over the past week, the mempool tracked by various nodes has varied in size from almost 100,000 transactions to fewer than 1,000 transactions. The hops going past the node won’t be used, but they will make it harder for the spender to determine how many hops the receiver is from the last non-blinded forwarding node in the route. The credentials include a blind signature that prevents the forwarding node from directly determining which node was issued the credential (preventing the forwarding node from learning the network identity of the spender). For blinded paths, it appears the receiver can provide any necessary credentials in an encrypted form without introducing a secondary vulnerability. ● UTXO ownership proofs or other alternatives: although not necessary for Riard’s initial proposal, some forwarding nodes may experiment with giving credentials to everyone who proves they own a Bitcoin UTXO, perhaps with modifiers that give older or higher-value UTXOs more credential tokens than newer or lower-value UTXOs. Riard replied that it would be difficult to redistribute credential tokens and create a market for them because any transfer would require trust. ● Faster seed backup checksums: Peter Todd replied to the discussion about a draft BIP for Codex32 (see last week’s newsletter), a scheme that allows creating, verifying, and using recovery codes for a BIP32 seed.
Russell O’Connor replied that a full Codex32 recovery code can be checked much faster than full verification if the user is willing to accept less protection. Peter Todd suggested a far easier method would be to generate recovery codes that could have their parts added together to produce a checksum. Checking just two characters at a time would guarantee detection of any single-character mistake in a recovery code and provide 99.9% protection against other substitution errors. As designed, Codex32 provides very strong assurances about its ability to detect errors in the backups. A particular advantage of Codex32 over existing schemes is the ability to verify the integrity of backups using just pen, paper, documentation, and a modest amount of time. Peter Todd suggested using an algorithm that provided roughly 99.9% protection against any typos, which he thought would be sufficiently strong, easy for people to use, and easy for people to memorize so that they didn’t need the extra Codex32 materials. I don’t know why it didn’t happen sooner but it’s just another lesson for any company trying to get into the space. Corallo also worries that using BIP8 from the start of a soft fork deployment gives the impression that the developers of node software get to decide the rules of the system.
● Federation software Fedimint adds Lightning: In a recent blog post, Blockstream outlines updates to the Fedimint federated Chaumian e-cash project, including Lightning Network support. ● Mempool Project launches Lightning Network explorer: Mempool’s open source Lightning dashboard shows aggregate network statistics as well as individual node liquidity and connectivity data. And to make matters worse, 24,000 transactions per second doesn’t make for a truly unique global payments network in and of itself. A future change to LDK may close channels with feerates that are too low, and work on proposals like package relay may make anchor outputs or youtu.be similar techniques adaptable enough to eliminate concerns about present feerates. Square Crypto and Steve and team and Matt have been focused on making sure that any wallet can easily turn on Lightning and to make this accessible to everyone. During the ICO, the crypto token was sold at the price of 2,700 BNB for 1 ETH or 20,000 BNB for 1 BTC. This brings the total number of coins to more than 100. The platform also offers its traders a crypto wallet for their electronic funds.