Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Softfork proposal for minimum price of $50k USD/BTC

From: Thomas France <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2019 19:57:57 -0700

Once again, Core shows how conservative they are. I am in favor of 2X with
a 100kUSD minimum price, all Bitcoin businesses are with me !

On Sun, Mar 31, 2019 at 7:48 PM Ricardo Filipe via bitcoin-dev <
[email-masked]> wrote:

> one year seems too long. i think with the BIP-148 experience you have
> we could easily get there in 6 months at most.
>
> Luke Dashjr via bitcoin-dev <[email-masked]>
> escreveu no dia segunda, 1/04/2019 à(s) 01:33:
> >
> > Certain parts of the community have been selling bitcoins for
> unreasonably
> > low prices. This has halted Bitcoin's valuation at $20k and even driven
> the
> > price down below $15k! However, clearly Bitcoin is worth much more than
> > that, and there is widespread support for higher prices.
> >
> > In light of this, I have written and implemented two BIPs: one to add a
> > signed price field to Bitcoin transactions, and the other to softfork a
> > minimum price of $50k USD/BTC a year from today.
> >
> > The BIPs are here, as well as included at the bottom of this email for
> > convenience:
> >
> https://github.com/luke-jr/bips/blob/softfork_50k/bip-usdprice.mediawiki
> >
> https://github.com/luke-jr/bips/blob/softfork_50k/bip-softfork-50k-price.mediawiki
> >
> > A reference implementation is here:
> >
> https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/compare/v0.17.1...luke-jr:softfork_50k
> >
> > Please review ASAP so we can get these deployed in Bitcoin Core v0.18.
> >
> > Luke
> >
> >
> > <pre>
> >   BIP: ?
> >   Layer: Applications
> >   Title: Signed USD Price Indicator
> >   Author: Luke Dashjr <[email-masked]>
> >   Comments-Summary: No comments yet.
> >   Comments-URI: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/wiki/Comments:BIP-????
> >   Status: Draft
> >   Type: Standards Track
> >   Created: 2019-04-01
> >   License: BSD-2-Clause
> > </pre>
> >
> > ==Abstract==
> >
> > This BIP proposes a method to explicitly specify and sign the USD/BTC
> price
> > for transactions.
> >
> > ==Copyright==
> >
> > This BIP is licensed under the BSD 2-clause license.
> >
> > ==Motivation==
> >
> > Certain parts of the community have been selling bitcoins for
> unreasonably low
> > prices. This has halted Bitcoin's valuation at $20k and even driven the
> price
> > down below $15k! However, clearly Bitcoin is worth much more than that,
> and
> > there is widespread support for higher prices.
> >
> > This problem can be fixed by setting a global minimum price for bitcoins.
> > Unfortunately, today, the consensus protocol is completely oblivious to
> the
> > price bitcoins are traded at. Therefore, we must first add a field to
> Bitcoin
> > transactions to indicate their price.
> >
> > ==Specification==
> >
> > ===New field and legal implication===
> >
> > A new field is added to Bitcoin transactions. This field, if present,
> must
> > represent the honest and true USD/BTC rate used for the transaction. By
> > signing the transaction, the sender legally affirms this is the
> valuation of
> > bitcoins used for the transaction.
> >
> > For the avoidance of doubt: when the transaction is valued in a currency
> other
> > than USD, any reasonable exchange rate may be used to come up with the
> USD
> > valuation.
> >
> > ===Serialisation===
> >
> > When serialising the transaction for any purpose, including signing,
> weight
> > calculation, and so on, the output count must be incremented by one.
> Prior to
> > the first real output, the following bytes must be inserted:
> >
> > * Constant: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> > * A single byte, the size in bytes of the remainder of the inserted data
> > * Constant: 6a 04 55 53 44 24
> > * A single byte, the size in bytes of the remainder of the inserted data
> > * The USD/BTC rate used for the transaction, in standard signed integer
> > serialisation, with all leading zeros removed (except as necessary to
> > preserve the sign bit).
> >
> > ==Backwards compatibility==
> >
> > ===Consensus===
> >
> > The new price field is serialised as a dummy output, with a value of
> zero, and
> > a scriptPubKey that begins with OP_RETURN (6a). Existing nodes will
> ignore
> > this dummy output, and the leading OP_RETURN in the scriptPubKey ensures
> it
> > is never considered spendable.
> >
> > Therefore, current nodes will ignore the new field entirely, and accept
> > transactions using it.
> >
> > ===Wallets===
> >
> > Existing wallets do not typically generate price indicators as specified.
> > Under this BIP, this absence of the field is perfectly acceptable.
> >
> > ==Reference implementation==
> >
> >
> https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/compare/v0.17.1...luke-jr:usd_price_tx_field
> >
> > <pre>
> >   BIP: ?
> >   Layer: Consensus (soft fork)
> >   Title: $50k USD/BTC Minimum Price
> >   Author: Luke Dashjr <[email-masked]>
> >   Comments-Summary: No comments yet.
> >   Comments-URI: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/wiki/Comments:BIP-????
> >   Status: Draft
> >   Type: Standards Track
> >   Created: 2019-04-01
> >   License: BSD-2-Clause
> >   Requires: usdprice
> > </pre>
> >
> > ==Abstract==
> >
> > This BIP defines a minimum price of $50k USD/BTC for Bitcoin
> transactions.
> >
> > ==Copyright==
> >
> > This BIP is licensed under the BSD 2-clause license.
> >
> > ==Motivation==
> >
> > Certain parts of the community have been selling bitcoins for
> unreasonably low
> > prices. This has halted Bitcoin's valuation at $20k and even driven the
> price
> > down below $15k! However, clearly Bitcoin is worth much more than that,
> and
> > there is widespread support for higher prices.
> >
> > bip-usdprice defines a new field to indicate the price of transactions.
> Using
> > this, we can softfork to require a minimum transaction price.
> >
> > ==Specification==
> >
> > Beginning with block height 622370 (expected approximately 2020 April
> 1), a
> > block is reject as invalid unless all transactions it contains both
> declare a
> > USD/BTC price (as defined in bip-usdprice) and specify a price that is
> at a
> > minimum $50k USD/BTC.
> >
> > ==Backwards compatibility==
> >
> > As a soft fork, older nodes will continue to accept the blockchain
> without
> > modification. Non-upgraded nodes, however, will not validate the minimum
> > price requirement, and may accept invalid blocks if miners choose to make
> > them. Since transactions not declaring a price are at this time still
> > common-place, the softfork activation has been set a full year into the
> > future to ensure time to upgrade both nodes and wallet software.
> >
> > ==Reference implementation==
> >
> >
> https://github.com/luke-jr/bitcoin/compare/usd_price_tx_field...softfork_50k
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