Re: [bitcoin-dev] [Mempool spam] Should we as developers reject non-standard Taproot transactions from full nodes?

From: Michael Folkson <michaelfolkson@protonmail•com>
To: Erik Aronesty <erik@q32•com>
Cc: Bitcoin Protocol Discussion
	<bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org>,
	Ali Sherief <ali@notatether•com>
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] [Mempool spam] Should we as developers reject non-standard Taproot transactions from full nodes?
Date: Mon, 08 May 2023 20:36:11 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <QYPtmRCZL8bbzudcgtR2tkRdZpVmJlR1b6eoJ3F1w5VDjGa_ePnHT2fR_Y7gG9hqplzM6wHgx14WC-a5EFQXlKyGxKa_MX4ZqD91oDLwyvU=@protonmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAJowKgJRiyWPC-qOKWMHQQaW-h5TXXOTDw2V6TKQBe3PXQQMZQ@mail.gmail.com>

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> im unclear as to the purposepaying an onchain transaction fee greater than the amount receiving could possibly serve.

If you expect fees to continue to rise and be sustained at abnormally high levels for a long period of time you might seek to close your Lightning channel(s) and move whatever value you can from these Lightning channel(s) onchain even if it means paying a higher fee than the amount you are receiving.

I don't necessarily recommend doing this (it would depend on a number of factors, both personal and external) but there is no reason to prevent someone in say the consensus rules from doing this if they wish.

--
Michael Folkson
Email: michaelfolkson at [protonmail.com](http://protonmail.com/)
GPG: A2CF5D71603C92010659818D2A75D601B23FEE0F

Learn about Bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/@portofbitcoin

------- Original Message -------
On Monday, May 8th, 2023 at 20:47, Erik Aronesty <erik@q32•com> wrote:

> im unclear as to the purpose paying an onchain transaction fee greater than the amount receiving could possibly serve.
>
> what benefit do you get aside from losing bitcoin?
>
> are there any, non-theoretical, benefits to facilitating dust transactions?
>
> we could, of course, have it be non-consensus (no route dust) to start with
>
> On Mon, May 8, 2023 at 1:13 PM Michael Folkson <michaelfolkson@protonmail•com> wrote:
>
>>> probably easier just to reject any transaction where the fee is higher than the sum of the outputs
>>
>> And prevent perfectly reasonable transfers of value and attempted Lightning channel closes during fee spikes? If I want to close my Lightning channel during a protracted fee spike where I have to pay an onchain transaction fee greater than the amount I am receiving you want to stop me doing that? You are impinging on a valid use case as well as requiring a consensus rule change.
>>
>> --
>> Michael Folkson
>> Email: michaelfolkson at [protonmail.com](http://protonmail.com/)
>> GPG: A2CF5D71603C92010659818D2A75D601B23FEE0F
>>
>> Learn about Bitcoin: https://www.youtube.com/@portofbitcoin
>>
>> ------- Original Message -------
>> On Monday, May 8th, 2023 at 13:58, Erik Aronesty via bitcoin-dev <bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>>
>>> probably easier just to reject any transaction where the fee is higher than the sum of the outputs
>>>
>>> On Mon, May 8, 2023, 7:55 AM Ali Sherief via bitcoin-dev <bitcoin-dev@lists•linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi guys,
>>>>
>>>> I think everyone on this list knows what has happened to the Bitcoin mempool during the past 96 hours. Due to side projects such as BRC-20 having such a high volume, real bitcoin transactions are being priced out and that is what is causing the massive congestion that has arguable not been seen since December 2017. I do not count the March 2021 congestion because that was only with 1-5sat/vbyte.
>>>>
>>>> Such justifiably worthless ("worthless" is not even my word - that's how its creator described them[1]) tokens threaten the smooth and normal use of the Bitcoin network as a peer-to-pear digital currency, as it was intended to be used as.
>>>>
>>>> If the volume does not die down over the next few weeks, should we take an action? The bitcoin network is a triumvirate of developers, miners, and users. Considering that miners are largely the entities at fault for allowing the system to be abused like this, the harmony of Bitcoin transactions is being disrupted right now. Although this community has a strong history of not putting its fingers into pies unless absolutely necessary - an example being during the block size wars and Segwit - should similar action be taken now, in the form of i) BIPs and/or ii) commits into the Bitcoin Core codebase, to curtail the loophole in BIP 342 (which defines the validation rules for Taproot scripts) which has allowed these unintended consequences?
>>>>
>>>> An alternative would be to enforce this "censorship" at the node level and introduce a run-time option to instantly prune all non-standard Taproot transactions. This will be easier to implement, but won't hit the road until minimum next release.
>>>>
>>>> I know that some people will have their criticisms about this, absolutists/libertarians/maximum-freedom advocates, which is fine, but we need to find a solution for this that fits everyone's common ground. We indirectly allowed this to happen, which previously wasn't possible before. So we also have a responsibility to do something to ensure that this kind of congestion can never happen again using Taproot.
>>>>
>>>> -Ali
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>>
>>>> [1]: [https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/05/05/pump-the-brcs-the-promise-and-peril-of-bitcoin-backed-tokens/](https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/05/05/pump-the-brcs-the-promise-and-peril-of-bitcoin-backed-tokens/?outputType=amp)
>>>>
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