Four Bitcoin developers have released a paper outlining how Schnorr multi-signatures (‘multisig’) can help scale the Bitcoin Blockchain.
In the paper, published Jan. 15, Greg Maxwell, Andrew Poelstra, Yannick Seurin and Pieter Wuille discuss and illustrate how the technology, which ‘bunches’ multisig data together to reduce its size in a transaction, “could improve both performance and user privacy in Bitcoin.”
Multisig has seen wide use in various applications for Bitcoin over the past several years. Its trademark security benefits are a principal feature of some consumer wallet applications, and this week’s paper pays attention to how Schnorr multisig also offers enhanced transaction privacy.
Bitcoin scaling solutions continue to be in urgent demand as a variety of improvements move ever closer to mainstream acceptance.
Chief among those in January is the Lightning Network, a so-called layer 2 protocol that facilitates near-zero-fee transactions for Bitcoin, processed almost instantly.
Mainnet Lightning transactions are still in the “testing phase”, as Blockstream engineers put it in a post Jan. 16, and are happening on a small scale, with only around 50 nodes and 80 channels in operation.
Schnorr signatures have long been a favorite for technical commentators, receiving praise from Blockchain consultant Sam Wouters for security benefits last July. Wouters explained the significance of the technology in a post, saying:
“At the end of the day, if it is just one person sending that transaction from multiple sources, there should be some way to do so with just one signature, right? This is what Schnorr signatures allow us to do.”
Topic: [2018-01-19] Bitcoin Devs Release Long-Awaited Schnorr Paper for Scalability ... (Read 185 times)
January 20, 2018, 02:15:27 PM
January 20, 2018, 10:25:49 AM
To be honest I don't care how the developers solve the scaling problem. The problem is, and it urgently needs to be solved. The drop in the price of bitcoin will be evidence. I believe that this year the problem will be solved. The stubbornness and greed of the miners jeopardizes all.
The price drop has nothing to do with scaling and fees, it has dropped because the market is very volatile and speculative - and at early days the volatility was even higher. And all those arguments that Bitcoin is dying because of high fees is like saying "no one goes there anymore, it's too crowded" - people are still using Bitcoin despite the high fees.
January 20, 2018, 10:01:54 AM
To be honest I don't care how the developers solve the scaling problem. The problem is, and it urgently needs to be solved. The drop in the price of bitcoin will be evidence. I believe that this year the problem will be solved. The stubbornness and greed of the miners jeopardizes all.
Well the Bitcoin developers are not to be blamed for this, because they coded SegWit and consensus was reached to
accept it. The merchants on the other hand, decided to ignore it and some even started to support Bitcoin Cash, before they
considered SegWit. Now that the Lightning Network is showing good promise, they suddenly started to implement SegWit,
because they know that they are going to lose customers once the Lightning Network goes viral.
January 20, 2018, 08:48:29 AM
To be honest I don't care how the developers solve the scaling problem. The problem is, and it urgently needs to be solved. The drop in the price of bitcoin will be evidence. I believe that this year the problem will be solved. The stubbornness and greed of the miners jeopardizes all.
January 20, 2018, 07:38:35 AM
The best part is that using the same address to receive multiple times does nothing, and even if it could be optimised, won't be, because you're not supposed to ever do that.
I don't agree. Optimisation means a lot.You may think your way, but it is innovation.
January 19, 2018, 10:15:34 PM
The best part is that using the same address to receive multiple times does nothing, and even if it could be optimised, won't be, because you're not supposed to ever do that.
January 19, 2018, 08:53:29 AM
Bitcoin Devs Release Long-Awaited Schnorr Paper for Scalability Gains
A new research paper focused on Schnorr multi-signatures and penned by several notable bitcoin developers has just been released.
Published on Thursday, the paper was penned by developers Gregory Maxwell, Andrew Poelstra, Yannick Seurin and Pieter Wuille. It details how Schnorr multi-signatures can be applied to the bitcoin, and though there's no guarantee they will ultimately be utilized, this new release could mark an additional step in that direction.
Specifically, the Schnorr concept proposes bundling signatures into one small data entry, rather than having multiple signatures listed individually. This has the result of saving space on the blockchain, enabling it to process more signatures while increasing security, according to the paper.
Security is increased by enabling a multi-signature system, wherein at least two parties need to confirm a transaction for it to process. This limits or prevents malicious parties from launching a transaction on another user’s account.
The paper's authors note:
“The size of the multi-signature, in that case, grows linearly with the number of signers. In order to be useful and practical, a multi-signature scheme should produce signatures whose size is (ideally) independent from the number of signers and close to the one of an ordinary signature scheme.”
Schnorr signatures could provide additional benefits as well if implemented, as previously reported by CoinDesk.
Bunching data with one signature can limit spam on the blockchain. In other words, rather than having many small blocks of data sent to the network, one single chunk is sent, which can be processed more quickly.
Similarly, bunching data from different sources can enhance privacy by making it more difficult to trace any single transaction back to its source.
Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-devs-release-long-awaited-schnorr-paper-for-scalability-gains/
A new research paper focused on Schnorr multi-signatures and penned by several notable bitcoin developers has just been released.
Published on Thursday, the paper was penned by developers Gregory Maxwell, Andrew Poelstra, Yannick Seurin and Pieter Wuille. It details how Schnorr multi-signatures can be applied to the bitcoin, and though there's no guarantee they will ultimately be utilized, this new release could mark an additional step in that direction.
Specifically, the Schnorr concept proposes bundling signatures into one small data entry, rather than having multiple signatures listed individually. This has the result of saving space on the blockchain, enabling it to process more signatures while increasing security, according to the paper.
Security is increased by enabling a multi-signature system, wherein at least two parties need to confirm a transaction for it to process. This limits or prevents malicious parties from launching a transaction on another user’s account.
The paper's authors note:
“The size of the multi-signature, in that case, grows linearly with the number of signers. In order to be useful and practical, a multi-signature scheme should produce signatures whose size is (ideally) independent from the number of signers and close to the one of an ordinary signature scheme.”
Schnorr signatures could provide additional benefits as well if implemented, as previously reported by CoinDesk.
Bunching data with one signature can limit spam on the blockchain. In other words, rather than having many small blocks of data sent to the network, one single chunk is sent, which can be processed more quickly.
Similarly, bunching data from different sources can enhance privacy by making it more difficult to trace any single transaction back to its source.
Source: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-devs-release-long-awaited-schnorr-paper-for-scalability-gains/
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