Wouldn't this enable a passive adversary listening the mempool to associate
unrelated TXO clusters to the same user?

On Sat, Sep 19, 2020, 15:38 David A. Harding via bitcoin-dev <
bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 05:51:39PM -0700, Jeremy via bitcoin-dev wrote:
> > I'd like to share with you a draft proposal for a mechanism to replace
> > CPFP and RBF for increasing fees on transactions in the mempool that
> > should be more robust against attacks.
>
> Interesting idea!  This is going to take a while to think about, but I
> have one immediate question:
>
> > To prevent garbage sponsors, we also require that:
> >
> > 1. The Sponsor's feerate must be greater than the Sponsored's ancestor
> fee rate
> >
> > We allow one Sponsor to replace another subject to normal replacement
> > policies, they are treated as conflicts.
>
> Is this in the reference implementation?  I don't see it and I'm
> confused by this text.  I think it could mean either:
>
> 1. Sponsor Tx A can be replaced by Sponsor Tx B if A and B have at least
>    one input in common (which is part of the "normal replacement policies")
>
> 2. A can be replaced by B even if they don't have any inputs in common
>    as long as they do have a Sponsor Vector in common (while otherwise
>    using the "normal replacement policies").
>
> In the first case, I think Mallory can prevent Bob from
> sponsor-fee-bumping (sponsor-bumping?) his transaction by submitting a
> sponsor before he does; since Bob has no control over Mallory's inputs,
> he can't replace Mallory's sponsor tx.
>
> In the second case, I think Mallory can use an existing pinning
> technique to make it expensive for Bob to fee bump.  The normal
> replacement policies require a replacement to pay an absolute higher fee
> than the original transaction, so Mallory can create a 100,000 vbyte
> transaction with a single-vector sponsor at the end pointing to Bob's
> transaction.  This sponsor transaction pays the same feerate as Bob's
> transaction---let's say 50 nBTC/vbyte, so 5 mBTC total fee.  In order
> for Bob to replace Mallory's sponsor transaction with his own sponsor
> transaction, Bob needs to pay the incremental relay feerate (10
> nBTC/vbyte) more, so 6 mBTC total ($66 at $11k/BTC).
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Dave
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