Why Drivechain Is Our Best Chance To Secure Bitcoin Into The Future

Faced with the menace of ossification, Bitcoin Core should follow BIPs 300 and 301, integrating Drivechain’s solutions for ongoing security.

This is an sentiment editorial by Samuel Greenberg, who believes that Bitcoin is the champion anticipation we person to execute a conscionable satellite and walk it to the adjacent generation.

At immoderate point, little than 10 years from now, the artifact subsidy volition drop beneath 1 bitcoin — and proceed its decay astatine each consequent halving epoch. This means that the information of the web volition trust much and much connected transaction fees alone.

We should expect, successful that aforesaid period, that the almighty fiat institutions of the satellite volition go keenly alert of what a superior menace Bitcoin is to their hegemony. If transaction fees are insufficient to prolong wide and distributed miner activity, past determination whitethorn beryllium an accidental for those almighty institutions to power capable hash complaint to onslaught the network. We, arsenic a community, indispensable instrumentality this menace earnestly and defy becoming complacent successful the thought that, somehow, Bitcoin’s occurrence is preordained, requiring nary further effort of our own.

Since the Blocksize War concluded successful 2017, improvements to the web person been highly hard to instrumentality owed to an obsession, correctly, with the information of the main chain. Given its importance, skepticism toward a projected betterment of Bitcoin Core’s codification is tenable and desirable. That said, resisting each proposals successful the sanction of the precautionary rule is counterproductive successful the lawsuit that a connection contributes to the information of the network. Developers should relation arsenic custodians aiming to cleanable the network, alternatively than gatekeepers who stagnate it.

The Challenges Bitcoin Will Soon Face

Bitcoin, similar different protocols, volition ossify astatine immoderate constituent — however, determination are 2 captious issues that are captious to remedy earlier it hardens permanently. The archetypal is the uncertainty that transaction fees volition suffice to secure the network arsenic artifact subsidies alteration implicit time. The second, which is related indirectly to the first, is that developers are without a spot to permissionlessly and safely innovate utile and fee-generating features for the network.

In bid to guarantee the continued information of the network, the ecosystem of miners indispensable beryllium robust and wide distributed. It is incumbent upon miners to question retired charismatic vigor sources, to beryllium prudent successful superior readying and to support operational excellence. Unfortunately, if determination is simply not capable accessible gross to spell around, each of the champion practices successful the satellite volition not beryllium enough, and miners volition beryllium forced to unopen down and merchantability their ASICs.

The full gross earned by each miners done each activities (transaction fees, artifact subsidy and others) successful a fixed period, oregon the Bitcoin “security budget,” has been predominantly driven by a artifact subsidy that is decaying exponentially. We — arsenic a assemblage — person a work to assistance fortify the network’s information budget, by uncovering caller ways to turn the gross from transaction fees oregon by moving to maximize the worth of Bitcoin successful wide oregon by locating different caller uses for miners. The network’s worth and information are related straight to its usage, truthful the solution indispensable impact expanding Bitcoin’s usage.

We request to equilibrium the affordability of transactions connected the main concatenation with the imperative of a accordant and dependable interest market, ensuring the web is not susceptible to attack. The transaction fees generated from Bitcoin’s inferior arsenic wealth unsocial whitethorn beryllium to beryllium an unstable gross source. This attack (which is presently the ascendant one) could yet necessitate users to wage hundreds oregon adjacent thousands of dollars per discrete transaction to beryllium included successful a block, undermining Bitcoin’s inferior arsenic a money.

Our astir reliable countermeasure is to maximize the usefulness of the Bitcoin web by enabling the assemblage to make arsenic galore utile tools and applications arsenic imaginable (all requiring transaction fees). Drivechain is the anticipation of securing the Bitcoin web with permissionless innovation. As stated, innovation is presently inhibited arsenic developers are cautious and conservative, understandably, erstwhile considering a web betterment connected the main chain. Furthermore, determination is nary process to integrate a caller thought — a proposer indispensable often enactment for years gathering societal momentum by convincing individuals 1 by one, a miserable and counterproductive usage of their energy.

Crucially, this forces real, fee-paying users to either hold patiently for the developer priests to bless a desired diagnostic oregon to question it elsewhere. This is an egregious misalignment; nary radical of radical should determine what is worthy of usage. If we judge successful escaped markets, not lone successful currency, but besides successful ideas and vision, past we should spot the marketplace to freely determine what is useful.

Introducing Drivechain

In 2015, Paul Sztorc projected BIPs 300 and 301 (or “Drivechain”), outlining a protocol upgrade that would alteration developers to innovate permissionlessly connected apical of the Bitcoin protocol stack. The imaginativeness for Drivechain is to let users to deposit and retreat their bitcoin into sidechains with a fixed, one-to-one conversion complaint (enforced by BIP 300’s “Hashrate Escrows”). Miners would beryllium capable to cod each of the transaction fees from each of these sidechains successful the signifier of Bitcoin transaction fees, without needing to tally further node bundle (outlined by BIP 301’s “Blind Merged Mining”).

Drivechain requires a brushed fork and establishes a wide mechanics for incorporating innovations into the network, safely, connected a sidechain (a “second layer”), portion the existent functionality of the main concatenation remains unchanged. Bitcoin users tin take to wholly disregard immoderate and each sidechains. But limitless diagnostic improvement for users tin beryllium deployed connected them, each of which tin lend fees toward Bitcoin’s web security.

This further inferior successful the Bitcoin web enabled by Drivechain captures worth successful 2 ways: First, arsenic sidechains are lone accessible by depositing bitcoin astatine par, and are ever redeemable astatine par, their beingness is simply a caller root of demand, generating terms appreciation versus dollars; and second, by drafting dollars distant from rivalrous blockchains into Bitcoin, we make terms appreciation versus different cryptocurrencies, each with bitcoin being the wealth required to entree and usage a limitless multitude of sidechains. Thus, Drivechain expands the realm of necessity for bitcoin arsenic money.

Addressing Drivechain Criticism

Source: Author

The Bitcoin assemblage should not tolerate rivalrous projects. We should integrate each bully thought from each different projects into the Bitcoin network. We should person privateness coins, and smart-contracting coins and immoderate different coins that idiosyncratic tin imagination of.

As sidechains are not vehicles for get-rich-quick (via pre-mine, past pump-and-dump models), they usher successful existent open-source coordination; users tin springiness distant large ideas for idiosyncratic other to build, without concerns of missing the upside. All valid solutions would vie for the attraction of the users based solely connected their inferior and usability. Any usage of immoderate task built connected a sidechain would payment everyone who held bitcoin (commensurate with the standard of usage connected the sidechain).

There are respective communal criticisms that the assemblage asks Drivechain advocates to address, the astir communal being a assertion that “miners tin bargain from sidechains.” But fto america consider that these sidechains would beryllium gross sources for the miners, truthful determination is small inducement for miners to destruct them. Additionally, each usage of sidechains is voluntary, truthful users take to deposit their bitcoin knowing determination is simply a theoretical risk.

Some important discourse is that, due to the fact that of the codification underlying BIP 300, an onslaught connected a sidechain would instrumentality six months if a minimum of 51% of miners were to collude. The onslaught indispensable hap successful wide daylight, and astatine immoderate clip the web tin respond to support itself, needing lone 2% of miners to defect (by pointing their hash rates to different pools). There is immoderate precedent for this, for example, successful September of 2022 erstwhile the Poolin mining excavation suspended withdrawals, its hash complaint dropped from much than 10% to little than 2% successful a substance of days — the web is susceptible of defending itself from mining excavation misconduct.

Other communal criticisms magnitude to dismissals like, “We person thing to interest astir with regards to the fees'' oregon that “The web is conscionable good arsenic is.” Both of these attitudes are epistemologically overconfident — we person nary mode of knowing what the aboriginal holds and the endurance of Bitcoin is excessively important to permission to hope. If it is the lawsuit that main concatenation transaction fees are so sufficient, past sidechain transaction fees are accretive and lone enactment to further unafraid the network.

Bitcoin represents a normative bully for humanity — present and into the future. Like the net decades ago, it is intolerable to ideate the bully that volition travel from this technology, and we should astatine each times question to nurture and support it. Drivechain is simply a comparatively small, airy touch, and serves arsenic a reversible alteration that unlocks tremendous latent potential. Humanity has ever solved its problems done innovation. We should privation Bitcoin to go a much utile tool, susceptible of being applied to a much wide acceptable of problems, each securing its halfway usage arsenic money.

It volition necessitate large courageousness and effort to found statement for Drivechain to beryllium merged into Bitcoin Core. But we tin go a portion of the consensus-build effort. We tin educate ourselves and advocator wrong our circles. We tin awesome our enactment and marque our voices heard.

This is simply a impermanent station by Samuel Greenberg. Opinions expressed are wholly their ain and bash not needfully bespeak those of BTC Inc oregon Bitcoin Magazine.