... and without using a centralized system like Inputs.io?
I wonder if it's possible to use a sidechain with a faster block confirmation interval to shorten tx confirms without a hard fork while still being decentralized.
Before making the purchase, you would convert a small amount of your existing bitcoins to sidechain coins which would function in a similar way to Inputs.io's BTC IOUs. The sidechain coins would have a faster block confirmation interval vs. actual bitcoins. You would use these sidechain coins to make purchases and the seller would then exchange them into real BTC.
There would need to be a way for holders of sidechain coins to send them back to the Bitcoin blockchain at any time. As long as the conversion of BTC to and from sidechain BTC remains unhindered, then the value of the sidechain coin should remain constant relative to BTC.
Any other ideas?
I was going to ask aren't altcoins+exchanges essentially these sidechains you're asking about? I guess the one difference is that altcoins can be volitile with respect to price. I guess the question remains, what motivation is there to mine the blocks of your hypothetical sidechain? If there's value in that independently, the you're basically talking about some kind of altcoin, right? If the value of that is a portion of the bitcoin block mining, then it seems like you're watering down bitcoin mining and you'd need a fork.
