To put it in perspective, I spent more time considering a $50 buy for a used computer than I've spent hearing about drive chain, that's a problem. I had hoped to listen to guys take, I think I understand it from a technical perspective, I'm not against the idea, but I have reservations and I'd like to see it discussed some more.
Discussion
All your reservations have been discussed for several years and replied to exaustively.
If you come up with something new i will zap you 50$
I am probably most concerned about those other projects, I suspect there may be a tail risk to bitcoin being ossified before a few major updates, because people would rather use a side chain instead.
I imagine you could create a sodechain with 10MB blocks and it would run just fine, the fees would be nonexistent, the transactions per second would be huge, it would still be pegged 1-1 with bitcoin, it would take years before bandwidth or storage would be an issue. Everything sounds great, I'd even argue that such a thing is necessary whether its us increasing the L1 block size or a side chain. However, that is still not a solution to scaling bitcoin to 8 billion people, even if you put lightning on top. There are other upgrades that bitcoin is still going to need to scale that hard, we need people willing to go into the depths of mathematics and cryptography and dig out things like cross input signature aggregation, stuff that condenses data stored on chain to its tiniest possible size; then we can see the maximum benefits from things like side chains or block size increases.
So then, "its not because we want shitcoins on bitcoin", " its not because its fixes scalability", you could use it for testing improvements, but improvements should be carefully designed that we know they work before deployment, we shouldn't be throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. We have litecoin and testnet for those purposes.
What is the argument for drive chains? Its a serious question, I remember in Paul's episode he said its great because it kills shitcoins, but now that'd not the argument, arguments evolve that's fine. But what is the argument today, what do we actually stand to gain? A monero side chain certainly sounds cool, no knocking that, I guess some people really like smart contracts too, is that what you guys are after?
Anything they would find in that research could be incorporated into a side chain, tested in real world conditions without first applying to a priesthood for approval. If it has real uses and becomes bigger and better than bitcoin, thats a good thing. It means some new thing has convinced even OG bitcoiner to join it. Bitcoin will still be around, on the main layer and won't go away because the L2 depends on it.
We don't write our thoughts on paper using quill first, then upload them to nostr. We DO still use letter, words and numbers to communicate thoughts.
If the wright brothers waited for a commity of core devs to approve their plans, create fluid dynamics and survey the whole world to see who wanted airplanes, we would never have gotten off the fucking ground.
drivechain allows market ecosystem testing of new features without endangering main net, and actually contributing fees to its security.
What Paul means when he says "It kills altcoins" was his appeal to the toxic maximalist. In reality all it does it take away the main justification for them. People may continue to use them, but the founding logic is removed. People think Paul means it brings shit coins to bitcoin. It does not, and in other interviews he describes that he thinks it won't.
->It rug pulls altcoins.<-
Monero Bullet proofs ? We get that in MoneroSide
Zcash zero k proofs ? We got that in zcashSide.
Why go outside bitcoin when what you want to tryout can be done within the ecosystem, with an escape route back to bitcoin.
Again, its NOT about bringing shitcoins to bitcoin, it's about removing their technical reasons for existing in the first place.
The above is about pauls words on shitcoins, not a total justification for DC.
We want DC to serve as a lifeboat against any future unpredicted technology or project that might threaten main bitcoin. You and i cannot know one will never exist, this is insurance. Claiming otherwise is a claim to godhood omnicience.
We want to invite all that network hashing being wasted on altcoins back onto bitcoin, making everyone more secure. They might not accept, but even having the option in bitcoin on a sidechain is a huge insurance.
We want new features to be tried out without having to go to every fucking twitter influencer troll and beg. or get onnour knees and suck some type-a core dev priest "just humbly keeping core chugging along".
Do YOU want Mideval Europe or Revolutionary America ? Which one was more free market and lead to the greatest Tech and Living standard increase in human history.
It certainly seems like its better than an atomic swap on bitcoin to monero, because in those you need someone on the other side and you have an anonymity set of few people. Falling asleep trying to get through guys take, I did find a few things wrong with his analysis already though, I'll have to try again tomorrow. I can understand the idea of wanting a way to test new features in a way that has real economic impact without risking the network, I still think that's what litecoin is for, but maybe there's a point between *this is highly experimental* and *we are ready to merge this with core*, maybe a *this has covenants enabled and people are using it for some advanced custody stuff that most people aren't ready for* or something, and litecoin just doesn't fit the bill.
It's also better because monero swaps are one way which is sus and annoying.
The testing i mean is also not exclusive to testing for future integration into core. It could be testing of quantum (i don't mean resistance) stuff forever outside of core. Instead of going outside of bitcoin you get attention and capital/user support from within.
Have a good night then. I'm in convo with Guy to help clear up some of the stuff he isnstucknas best i can, and we are all on a journey of understanding nwhat this new thing is, bitcoin.