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Silent Payments: Light Client Protocol

Silent Payments: Light Client Protocol

Original Postby josibake

Posted on: May 22, 2024 11:38 UTC

The email discusses various considerations and technical strategies for optimizing the retrieval and use of Unspent Transaction Outputs (UTXOs) in a cryptocurrency wallet context, focusing on bandwidth efficiency and security against dusting attacks.

It highlights the importance of allowing clients to set parameters that match their bandwidth constraints and security needs, particularly regarding the fetching of UTXOs with a customizable dust_limit. This threshold could be set to zero to notify clients of all silent payments or adjusted higher to exclude small UTXOs likely resulting from dusting attacks, thus only including UTXOs that are immediately spendable.

Further, the message delves into the potential benefits and drawbacks of utilizing a taproot-only filter compared to the standard BIP158 filter for transaction output selection. The sender questions the impact of choosing one filtering method over the other on bandwidth consumption and suggests that, unless there is a significant difference, sticking with the BIP158 filter might be preferable due to its established use and compatibility with current nodes. This consideration takes into account the expectation that the size difference between these filters will diminish as taproot adoption grows.

Additionally, the email proposes an alternative method for handling UTXOs by fetching simplified versions that allow clients to scan transactions with labels, facilitating easier identification and management of funds. This approach contrasts with requesting the full block data upon identifying relevant transactions, which would provide comprehensive details necessary for spending but at the cost of higher bandwidth usage. The sender also prompts a discussion on whether there might ever be a scenario where clients would need either the tweak data or a filter exclusively, suggesting that providing both simultaneously could enhance efficiency and usability.

Overall, the communication emphasizes the need for flexibility in cryptocurrency wallet design to accommodate different user requirements for privacy, security, and bandwidth optimization. It opens up several avenues for further exploration on how best to implement these features while maintaining user convenience and network health.