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I don’t recall why that decision was made, but there could be a couple reasons. First, it isn’t easy technically. Especially back when you’re designing the ve
by SkyMarshal 4y ago
I don’t recall why that decision was made, but there could be a couple reasons.
First, it isn’t easy technically. Especially back when you’re designing the very first decentralized cryptocurrency and have no prior experience informing your design. ZCash, Monero, MimbleWimble and others came later after learning from Bitcoin, and there’s zero chance they could have come first.
Second, shielded transactions risk undetected inflation bugs, which actually happened to ZCash some years ago.
Third, Bitcoin was designed shortly after the Liberty Dollar founder was arrested and jailed, and everyone in Bitcoin was concerned about that too, including Satoshi. He may have decided just not to push his luck.
- cowtools 4y agoLet's not speculate: https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/quotes/privacy/ https://satoshi.nakamotoinstitute.org/quotes/privacy/ https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=770 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=770 It seems like satoshi thought pseudo-anonyminity was sufficient. The integration of zero-knowlege proofs into cryptocurrencies was not really well understood at the time.
- rorrim 4y agoQuit it with this revisionist history nonsense, your second link contains where Satoshi specifically mentioned that a ZK-based version of bitcoin would be better, he just didn't know how to do it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=770.msg8637#msg8637 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=770.msg8637#msg8637
- SkyMarshal 4y agoI wouldn't call it revisionist, he's referencing the source.
- SkyMarshal 4y agoThanks, I knew there were discussions of it back then on bitcointalk and probably bitcoin wizards irc, just not where to find them. The bitcointalk thread seems to confirm #1 - it was just technically difficult to do back then.