What is Nostr?
Jeff Garzik [ARCHIVE] /
npub1kf0ā€¦3f58
2023-06-07 15:23:44
in reply to nevent1qā€¦r6dc

Jeff Garzik [ARCHIVE] on Nostr: šŸ“… Original date posted:2014-07-15 šŸ“ Original message:Proxying another's idea, ...

šŸ“… Original date posted:2014-07-15
šŸ“ Original message:Proxying another's idea, from CoinSummit.

The request: It would be useful to limit the lifetime of a bitcoin
address. Intentionally prevent (somehow) bitcoins being sent to a
pubkey/pkh after the key expires.

You could append "don't ["permit"|confirm] after X [time|block]" to
the address I suppose. The metadata would not be digitally signed,
but it would be hash-sealed. As "address" is a client-side notion,
wallet clients would be the ones enforcing such a rule.

Bitcoin protocol of course knows about keys, and key expiration is a
well known and useful concept in public key cryptography. The best
insertion point in the protocol for key expiration is an open
question, if it's even a good idea at that level at all. Some flag
"no more TxOuts exactly like this [after X block?]"?

I readily admit I don't have good answers, but it does seem valuable IMO to
* Prevent users from accidentally sending to an "expired" TxOut/pkh.
This happens in the field.
* Discourage address reuse
* Enable sites that generate lots of keys to rotate ancient keys off
their core systems. (HD wallets mitigate this)

--
Jeff Garzik
Bitcoin core developer and open source evangelist
BitPay, Inc. https://bitpay.com/
Author Public Key
npub1kf0ppcjaguxekg24yx6smgxlu73qn0k8lm0t2wrqc0scpl7u3sgsmf3f58