"legitimate transactions"
The recent discussions and negative sentiment surrounding the potential
filtering of
nostr:npub1qtvl2em0llpnnllffhat8zltugwwz97x79gfmxfz4qk52n6zpk3qq87dze and
coinjoin transactions appear to be driven primarily by speculation and
misunderstandings of how complicated spam filtering has historically been.
Filtering spam over the past two plus decades has consistently been a delicate
dance between accuracy and false positives, requiring ongoing adaptation and
refinement of filtering algorithms. This same principle applies to the potential
filtering of spam Bitcoin transactions.
Combating spam is a continuous and ever-evolving endeavor, similar to a
never-ending cat and mouse game. The notion of creating a static filter and
abandoning it is unrealistic. Constant adjustments and updates are necessary to
maintain their effectiveness. This situation is no different, and future
challenges will inevitably arise. When they do, we must question the situations
and infrom those running the application, mining pool, etc. of the potential
issues. By collaborating and openly sharing information, we can develop
solutions that address spam while safeguarding legitimate transactions and
privacy focused transactions.
Simply put: Have you ever encountered the frustration of searching for an
important email only to discover it buried in your spam folder? How did you fix
that? You instructed your email client to no longer flag those types of emails
as spam or you added the email sender to a safe sender list. Sometimes, this
worked right away and other times this took additional tweaking of spam
filtering algorithms. Still, this is so much easier than it used to be. Back in
the day, you'd have to send that email along with the headers to someone like me
and then I'd have to go update the SpamAssassin filters that I wrote.
I'm hopeful that they'll work it out.
Discussion
I have never viewed spam as being legitimate.