gavinandresen

#!/usr/bin/env python -u

# Read from stdin, corrupt/remove random bytes, write to standard out.

import optparse
import random
import sys

def main():
  parser = optparse.OptionParser(usage="%prog [options]")

gavinandresen

DO NOT USE A BRAINWALLET! YOU ARE LIKELY TO LOSE YOUR COINS!

These are half-baked thoughts.

IRC discussion: http://bitcoinstats.com/irc/bitcoin-dev/logs/2012/10/05#l4591669

Brainwallet braindump

gavinandresen

#!/usr/bin/env python
#
# Synchronize multisig addresses between two running bitcoinds
#
# Example usage:
#  multisigsync.py --connect1=http://abc:[email protected]:9000 --connect2=http://abc:[email protected]:9001 2MsrtHjVXGdT7RuTEiUWzec87Cik1rPpmyD
#
# Connects to both bitcoinds, figures out which one knows all the public keys for
# the mulitisig address, then tells the other about the address.
#

gavinandresen

# Raw transaction API example work-through
# Send coins to a 2-of-3 multisig, then spend them.
#
# For this example, I'm using these three keypairs (public/private)
# 0491bba2510912a5bd37da1fb5b1673010e43d2c6d812c514e91bfa9f2eb129e1c183329db55bd868e209aac2fbc02cb33d98fe74bf23f0c235d6126b1d8334f86 / 5JaTXbAUmfPYZFRwrYaALK48fN6sFJp4rHqq2QSXs8ucfpE4yQU
# 04865c40293a680cb9c020e7b1e106d8c1916d3cef99aa431a56d253e69256dac09ef122b1a986818a7cb624532f062c1d1f8722084861c5c3291ccffef4ec6874 / 5Jb7fCeh1Wtm4yBBg3q3XbT6B525i17kVhy3vMC9AqfR6FH2qGk
# 048d2455d2403e08708fc1f556002f1b6cd83f992d085097f9974ab08a28838f07896fbab08f39495e15fa6fad6edbfb1e754e35fa1c7844c41f322a1863d46213 / 5JFjmGo5Fww9p8gvx48qBYDJNAzR9pmH5S389axMtDyPT8ddqmw

# First: combine the three keys into a multisig address:
./bitcoind createmultisig 2 '["0491bba2510912a5bd37da1fb5b1673010e43d2c6d812c514e91bfa9f2eb129e1c183329db55bd868e209aac2fbc02cb33d98fe74bf23f0c235d6126b1d8334f86","04865c40293a680cb9c020e7b1e106d8c1916d3cef99aa431a56d253e69256dac09ef122b1a9

gavinandresen

Motivation

Make it easy for end-users to use multi-signature transactions to more securely spend and store their bitcoins.

Identify what infrastructure needs to be built, what existing infrastructure can be re-used, and agree on an interoperable standard so users running different Bitcoin clients can cooperate to create multi-signature wallets and create multi-signature transactions.

User experience

I've created a mockup of a GUI for two use cases:

gavinandresen

Bitcoin Transaction Metadata Design

This is a proposal for associating arbitrary metadata with Bitcoin transactions.

Popular Bitcoin services have been using various hacks to associate metadata with transactions, like using the amount of transaction outputs to communicate some information (e.g. SatoshiDice looks for a 0.00543210 BTC output to specify a payment address). Encoding metadata this way is inefficient, bloating the blockchain with extra data, and inelegant.

A general, extensible, backwards-compatible mechanism for associating information with transactions is needed.

This document describes a solution, then discusses it along with other possible solutions.

gavinandresen

SEE BIP 70

See https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0070 for the latest version of this document; I'll keep this document so the process of discussion/revision isn't lost.

Bitcoin Payment Messages

This document proposes protocol buffer-based formats for a simple payment protocol between a customer's bitcoin client software and a merchant.

gavinandresen

TEST PLAN TITLE

Submit completed tests and debug.log files to: {Name <email>}

Version tested: {0.x.y release candidate N, or git commit}

Test environment: {Operating System or other relevant info}

gavinandresen

Core development priorities

Advice for contributors

The over-arching core development priority is to avoid really big, disastrous mistakes.

There are billions of dollars at stake, and the core developers are acutely aware of how much responsibility that puts on them to try to ensure the core system is as reliable and stable as

gavinandresen

Motivation

This gist tries to come up with a back-of-the-envelope estimate for how much it costs a miner to create larger, rather than smaller, blocks. An economically rational miner will only include transactions with enough fees to cover the cost to the miner of processing the transaction.

I hope this analysis helps solo miners and mining pool operators to reason about their transaction fee policies, and helps them estimate their 'charity cost' if they decide to include fee-free transactions in the blocks they create to promote more use of Bitcoin.

Uncertain numbers in this document are rounded to one digit of precision; this is meant to be an order-of-magnitude estimate; when I say that 100K of free transactions costs about $1, you should assume that the real number might be anywhere between 10 cents and 10 dollars.

Executive summary