plebymous on Nostr: Monero supply is auditable. Every time you make a transaction, you have to ...
Monero supply is auditable. Every time you make a transaction, you have to mathematically prove you have the amount you spent. All you have to do is verify every proofs.
Sure, the maths involved is more complex than a simple summation, but it's still maths at the end of the day. The robustness of bulletproof (the proving scheme used) has been proven mathematically, the likelyhood of crafting fake proofs is metaphorically the same as being able to mine bitcoin blocks without having to do proof of work.
(the metaphor is somewhat accurate, bulletproof literally relies on the robustness of hash functions to be safe)
With that knowledge, let's imagine how an inflation bug would look like. A bug means there's something wrong in the verification process. On bitcoin, the code would not detect an invalid transaction (because it's buggy) but anyone who knows how to sum numbers will spot that something wrong is going on.
On monero, the code would not detect it, but anyone who knows how to verify proofs will spot something wrong is going on. It's pretty much the same.
It's a bit scary because we all know how to sum stuffs (but really there isn't as many people who know how to write code that sums all UTXO), while we don't necessarily know how to verify these proofs, but there are multiple implementation of verifiers, audited and well tested.
If you're not scared of maths, I highly encourrage reading Zero To Monero, it's not that hard and really demystifies the protocol. It's not a magic black box, it's just good old maths.
And finally, I believe there's still plenty of stuffs to improve bitcoin privacy without having to go as far as obfuscating transaction amounts. If we manage to improve anonymity sets, amounts will be obfuscated by being distributed into multiple uncorrelable UTXOs (the uncorrelable is the hard part).
Sure, the maths involved is more complex than a simple summation, but it's still maths at the end of the day. The robustness of bulletproof (the proving scheme used) has been proven mathematically, the likelyhood of crafting fake proofs is metaphorically the same as being able to mine bitcoin blocks without having to do proof of work.
(the metaphor is somewhat accurate, bulletproof literally relies on the robustness of hash functions to be safe)
With that knowledge, let's imagine how an inflation bug would look like. A bug means there's something wrong in the verification process. On bitcoin, the code would not detect an invalid transaction (because it's buggy) but anyone who knows how to sum numbers will spot that something wrong is going on.
On monero, the code would not detect it, but anyone who knows how to verify proofs will spot something wrong is going on. It's pretty much the same.
It's a bit scary because we all know how to sum stuffs (but really there isn't as many people who know how to write code that sums all UTXO), while we don't necessarily know how to verify these proofs, but there are multiple implementation of verifiers, audited and well tested.
If you're not scared of maths, I highly encourrage reading Zero To Monero, it's not that hard and really demystifies the protocol. It's not a magic black box, it's just good old maths.
And finally, I believe there's still plenty of stuffs to improve bitcoin privacy without having to go as far as obfuscating transaction amounts. If we manage to improve anonymity sets, amounts will be obfuscated by being distributed into multiple uncorrelable UTXOs (the uncorrelable is the hard part).