Feedback-ID: i525146e8:Fastmail
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2022 07:07:33 -0500
From: Peter Todd <pete@petertodd.org>
To: Bram Cohen <bram@chia.net>,
 Bitcoin Protocol Discussion <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
Message-ID: <Y2uYBYtz1tWLyGQY@petertodd.org>
References: <CAMhCMoH9uZPeAE_2tWH6rf0RndqV+ypjbNzazpFwFnLUpPsZ7g@mail.gmail.com>
 <CAHUJnBA7PUy3ajygdvvBwg6EyhUXGA-KKL_bkXLKCRPS98kRqw@mail.gmail.com>
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In-Reply-To: <CAHUJnBA7PUy3ajygdvvBwg6EyhUXGA-KKL_bkXLKCRPS98kRqw@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Merkleize All The Things
Precedence: list


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On Tue, Nov 08, 2022 at 03:34:32PM -0800, Bram Cohen via bitcoin-dev wrote:
> Another probably unhelpful bit of feedback I have is that Bitcoin should
> probably be taking verkle trees seriously because those can have
> substantially lower size/cost/weight than merkle trees. That doesn't just
> apply to this proposal, but to Bitcoin in general, which doesn't seem to
> have any serious verkle tree proposals to date.

Verkle trees only reduce proof sizes by a factor of 6-8, and they introduce
significant implementation complexity and new cryptographic assumptions. Be=
tter
to let other crypto-systems get a few more years of experience with them be=
fore
adding them to Bitcoin. Particularly since even having merkle trees in Bitc=
oin
is arguably a mistake: they allow for degenerate, weak, security modes like=
 SPV
that aren't clearly good for Bitcoin as a whole.

--=20
https://petertodd.org 'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org

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