Two early Bitcoin developers, Peter Todd and Adam Back, have proposed using Bitcoin as a cryptographic accumulator to enhance privacy and censorship resistance.
Adam Back's Proposal to Enhance Bitcoin Privacy
In a recent tweet, Adam Back suggested adding more cryptographic fungibility to Bitcoin as BTC technology improves. This would allow the blockchain to turn into a 'cryptographic accumulator'. According to Back, 'you can't censor anything, you can't filter anything, as it’s all blobs'. He noted that the term was first introduced in Ethereum’s update last year.
Peter Todd's Reaction to Back's Proposal
Peter Todd responded to Back's tweet, stating that he has been discussing a similar system for over a decade. He provided a link to his 2013 blog post titled 'Disentangling Crypto-Coin Mining: Timestamping, Proof-of-Publication, and Validation'.
Potential Risks and Benefits of the New Approach
Back warned that if Bitcoin reaches a state where transactions are completely anonymous, this could lead to risks associated with 'spam tradeoffs'. Opacity in transactions may create an environment conducive to dishonest practices.
The proposals by Peter Todd and Adam Back to transform Bitcoin into a cryptographic accumulator raise important questions about transaction privacy and security, as well as the risks they may entail.
