My concerns are privacy and scale, in that order. From my very basic understanding it seems like fedimint and/or adopting Drivechain (bip 300) could help with privacy. For example, you can build a zcash sidechain on bitcoin. (They’ve already built this I believe.) According to Paul this also helps with hash rate security, which ensures bitcoin survives long term.
Discussion
Fascinating read. I'll have to watch the video. I would like to find some *valid* critique of this, as they flippantly dismiss criticism ( maybe justifiably).
Every time I read about another crypto (Solana, algorand, monero, hedera, others) I really want to know how and if Bitcoin could implement those technologies.
The creator of the #nostr protocol, #[5]​ , is a proponent as well. I’ve struggled to find critiques of it that stick because it could be implemented and if you never wanted to use any of the features, you don’t have to. You can use #bitcoin in the same way you do right now.
Thank you for sharing that link. I just stumbled across drivechain and it's a really appealing concept.
I cannot understand why it doesn't get more public attention.
Sure thing. I can’t understand it either. Especially because if someone doesn’t want to use it, they don’t have to. They can continue using bitcoin as they do today.
This interview with Paul is really informative if podcasts are your thing.
I found this interview rather confusing and you can feel the tension between Peter and Paul. The LayerTwoLabs website links to some good videos though.
I think the 'marketing' of #drivechain is a little bit off. They don't clearly point out that it's all about a standardized way to create and run BTC sidechains. It's totally agnostic of how that sidechain is going to be implemented.
They talk too much about their modified zCash example, so people are mislead to believe it's about altcoins. #drivechain is all about ossification of layer 1 and creating Bitcoin-only scaling and innovation.
All good points. I listened to this in the fall I think - I forgot about them getting kind of stuck on the zcash thing.
As for privacy, I think lightning is generally "private enough". I know there was an article about it around here a few weeks ago.
Fedimint privacy comes at a trade-off. You lost custody.
Seems like with any L2 you lose custody, decentralization, and/or final settlement. All core value props of bitcoin.
Yeah, I think you're right about that. I suppose different people will make different calculations on the right tradeoff between those things and privacy. In some nations privacy may be more important than the strongest form of custody.
Although, if I understand it correctly, I think sidechains built on Drivechain could get you privacy without losing custody or decentralization. Do you think that tradeoffs are less with something like a Zcash Bitcoin sidechain instead of a fedimint?
With Monero you get privacy and keep all of those things. But it's tradeoff is the opaque auditability. I guess people just have to choose what they consider the lesser value attribute. Maybe we can't have it all, unfortunately.
Tbh, I don't know enough about drivechains to comment, but I know you at least lose final settlement. There is also interesting talk of bitcoin ZK-rollups.
Roll ups sound really interesting. Thanks for sharing. Here’s some info on Drivechain.