* [bitcoindev] Proposal: Self-Verifiable Transaction Broadcast Log for Enhanced User Transparency
@ 2025-06-16 9:57 wang wang
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From: wang wang @ 2025-06-16 9:57 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Bitcoin Development Mailing List
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Dear Bitcoin developers,
I’d like to propose a modest but meaningful improvement to Bitcoin node
software that addresses a real-world user issue involving orphaned or
dropped transactions: a local broadcast log for transactions that a node
has accepted and attempted to propagate.
---
**Background**
There is currently no robust way for users to prove or verify that a
transaction was ever seen, accepted, or propagated by the Bitcoin network —
especially in cases where:
- the transaction is not mined,
- it gets dropped from the mempool (e.g. due to eviction),
- or the transaction becomes part of a stale/orphaned block.
In such cases, users who possess the private key for an address might find
no trace of their transaction on-chain or in the mempool — effectively
losing any record that it was ever broadcast. This can result in perceived
"disappearance" or "freezing" of funds, and is especially problematic for
privacy-focused or air-gapped users who do not maintain full mempool logs.
---
**Proposal**
I propose a new opt-in mechanism called the *Self-Verifiable Transaction
Broadcast Log*. When enabled, this feature would:
- Record any transaction that a node accepts for broadcast (via P2P or
RPC), along with a timestamp and source;
- Optionally allow filtering by address or wallet;
- Provide a new RPC call (e.g., `getbroadcastedtxs`) to retrieve this
information;
- Help users and wallets verify that a transaction existed — even if it was
later dropped, reorganized, or not confirmed.
This does not change any consensus behavior, and the log can be locally
managed and purged by the user. It is purely a UX and auditability
improvement, similar in spirit to how `debug.log` can assist with debugging
but more structured and purpose-built.
---
**Motivation and Urgency**
This proposal stems from a real personal experience: having a valid signed
transaction broadcast via a node, but later being unable to locate it
anywhere — not in the mempool, not in the blockchain, and not recoverable
from most block explorers. I still hold the private key, yet I cannot prove
(to myself or anyone else) that the transaction ever existed.
This opens the door to transaction censorship or selective orphaning by
powerful actors (e.g. mining pools or state actors), without leaving
user-verifiable traces.
---
**Initial BIP Draft**
I’ve drafted a preliminary BIP here:
> [GitHub Gist / Link to PR - will insert final link here]
---
**Request for Feedback**
Before submitting the BIP as a formal PR or implementation patch, I’d like
to ask for early feedback from the community on the following:
- Would such a feature add meaningful user transparency and auditability?
- Are there concerns about wallet behavior, privacy, or implementation
complexity?
- Should logs be stored in-memory or disk by default?
- Would wallet software (like Core, Specter, Sparrow) benefit from exposing
this to users?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts and criticisms. If there's
interest, I will follow up with a reference implementation for Bitcoin Core
(v25+ compatible).
Warm regards,
liang
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