Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] User Resisted Soft Fork for CTV

From: Erik Aronesty <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2022 10:48:30 -0400

On Sat, Apr 23, 2022, 5:05 AM Billy Tetrud via bitcoin-dev <
[email-masked]> wrote:

> @Zac
> >  More use cases means more blockchain usage which increases the price of
> a transaction for *everyone*.
>
> This is IMO a ridiculous opposition. Anything that increases the utility
> of the bitcoin network will increase usage of the blockchain and increase
> the price of a transaction on average. It is absurd to say such a thing is
> bad for bitcoin. Its like the old saying: "nobody goes there any more -
> its too crowded".
>
> > I like the maxim of Peter Todd: any change of Bitcoin must benefit *all*
> users.
>
> This is a fair opinion to take on the face of it. However, I completely
> disagree with it. Why must any change benefit *all* users? Did segwit
> benefit all users? Did taproot? What if an upgrade benefits 90% of users
> a LOT and at the same time doesn't negatively affect the other 10%? Is that
> a bad change? I think you'd find it very difficult to argue it is.
>
> Regardless of the above, I think CTV *does *in fact likely provide
> substantial benefit to all users in the following ways:
>
> 1. CTV allows much easier/cheaper ways of improving their security via
> wallet vaults,
>

Maybe.  But there are enough security caveats that it probably needs other
opcodes too to be useful.

DLCs, channels

APO (BIP118) handles these with a smaller footprint

and many other use cases.

Someone want to volunteer to make a table of use cases, proposed opcodes
(CTV, APO)  and a maturity and efficiency rating at each intersection?

Hard to juggle all this.

I'm not a fan of the squeaky wheel method of consensus.

I do think most people believe some form of restricted, well-tested
covenants that don't allow for recursion should make it into Bitcoin at
some point.