Bitcoin Forum

Hi There:

I was reading about one of the challenges of the blockchain, and something really struck me.

If I want to buy a cup of coffee, I don't really need the whole network to verify that transaction. It's a real burden to the network.

Wouldn't a service that verified small BTC transactions instantly for the blockchain and took the whatever small risk on itself for a negligible (fraction of a cent USD to a consumer) fee be pretty useful for all parties (could also be monetized as an ad app), consumers, merchants, and Devs?

How would this work in a practical manner?

you claim that your transaction is a burden on the network, but give no numbers to support your claim.

why is it a burden? cumulative bandwidth of propagating a few hundred bytes around the world? a few milliseconds of computing power per node?

the bitcoin network was designed to verify and propagate transactions. that is what it is for.

what you are proposing is a clearing house. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearing_house_(finance)

its not a burden on the network - it was designed for this.

No it wasn't, microtransactions have worked out because the network hasn't grown to the point where they don't yet.


Along with that, 0-conf tx's are very risky because they are able to be doublespent trivially (or at least will be when Bitcoin matures).

If it ever becomes a burden on the network, the easy way out is to raise the value of the minimal transaction, or to request a higher transaction fee. This has been done before.

Low-risk (low balance) web wallets will be able to handle small, fast transactions off the main blockchain.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Looking forward to more.