'Confidential Assets': Blockstream Reveals New Bitcoin Privacy Tech

[mynhpark]

Bitcoin startup Blockstream has unveiled new technology for shielding data on a blockchain.
Expanding on an old technique used to hide transaction amounts, the company has developed a new scheme dubbed 'confidential assets'
to conceal the types of assets in a transaction. Revealing just how the tech works, the startup has released a new paper yesterday,
co-authored by Blockstream developers Andrew Poelstra, Adam Back, Mark Friedenbach, Greg Maxwell and Pieter Wuille.

Using confidential assets, viewers of a blockchain would be able to see a transaction's senders and receivers, but not what kind of asset
is traded – whether bitcoin, stocks, gold, or something else.

Do you think confidentiality is important for blockchain technology adoption?

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[Xester]

Bitcoin startup Blockstream has unveiled new technology for shielding data on a blockchain.
Expanding on an old technique used to hide transaction amounts, the company has developed a new scheme dubbed 'confidential assets'
to conceal the types of assets in a transaction. Revealing just how the tech works, the startup has released a new paper yesterday,
co-authored by Blockstream developers Andrew Poelstra, Adam Back, Mark Friedenbach, Greg Maxwell and Pieter Wuille.

Using confidential assets, viewers of a blockchain would be able to see a transaction's senders and receivers, but not what kind of asset
is traded – whether bitcoin, stocks, gold, or something else.

Do you think confidentiality is important for blockchain technology adoption?

o
In my opinion we need confidentiality in doing transactions as it serves as our protection from people who are good at doing bad things. For people who have a huge amount of bitcoin and has done huge transactions secrecy does not only protect their assets but also protect their life. But this features will be limited to the users only and will be available for show to the government in case there is a need to check our accounts or transactions.

[franky1]

but by turning a lets say 400byte tx into an upto 1.4kb tx by appending on a commitment to the tail of a tx.. is not good

and now people will see why blockstream had the 4mb weight but wanted to keep the 1mb base.

1mb =txdata minus signature
~1.1mb = signature
~1.9mb = commitment
=4mb weight all combined.

[andrew24p]

but by turning a lets say 400byte tx into a 1.4kb tx by appending on a commitment to the tail of a tx.. is not good

and now people will see why blockstream had the 4mb weight but wanted to keep the 1mb base.

1mb =txdata minus signature
~1.1mb = signature
~1.9mb = commitment
=4mb weight all combined.

But not everyone is going to use the privacy feature, I for one have no use for it.

[franky1]

but by turning a lets say 400byte tx into a 1.4kb tx by appending on a commitment to the tail of a tx.. is not good

and now people will see why blockstream had the 4mb weight but wanted to keep the 1mb base.

1mb =txdata minus signature
~1.1mb = signature
~1.9mb = commitment
=4mb weight all combined.

But not everyone is going to use the privacy feature, I for one have no use for it.

but wouldnt you rather have
full weight 2mb =2x tx capacity even with native keys and not needing to switch to segwit keypairs
full weight 4mb =4x tx capacity even with native keys and not needing to switch to segwit keypairs

or
full weight 2mb =2x tx capacity only IF EVERYONE switched to segwit keypairs
full weight 4mb =2x tx capacity only IF EVERYONE switched to segwit keypairs and used confidential features

[paul gatt]

Security is always a top concern, and it needs to be placed at the forefront, which is at the core of every technology, no one wants to use a convenient but non-confidential technology. Bitcoin needs to improve technology, but first of all, the technology must ensure its security, which is the first condition.

[franky1]

P.S
because these confidential commitments only work by people sharing a commitment. so that the maths works out

 and the rules of blockchain change to have what appears as random numbers instead of btc value, which when calculated together result in 0 to show no funny business of 'creating value' outside the blockreward took place.

it only takes a few people to get in a commitment to see the commitment to then be able to descramble the apparent random number that replaced the value.

so its a temporary thing thats not going to work on a long term bases.

its another utopia on paper.. but when running it through scenarios. it doesnt last as long and only ends up bloating up capacity limits.

if people want privacy. LN is the only way.

[BillyBobZorton]

Blockstream and Core team continue making a good job in the middle of the BUcoin FUD. Meanwhile the rest are just complaining and crying like a bitch all day on forums.

[OmegaStarScream]

If they proposed this as a new way for "privacy", I'm going to assume that they have zero intention to use TumbleBit (which seem to be a better option)?

[Kprawn]

Do you think confidentiality is important for blockchain technology adoption?

Yes, It absolutely is important. Why would a huge corporate entity use a technology where their financial status and transactions are accessible

to every Tom, Dick and Harry? Yes, they make some of this information public, but this is on their terms. No matter who you are, your finances

are your private information and you might become a target if your financial data are available to everyone. 

[pedrog]

Is it proprietary or free open source?

Did they patented it?

[franky1]

Blockstream and Core team continue making a good job in the middle of the BUcoin FUD. Meanwhile the rest are just complaining and crying like a bitch all day on forums.

others are making a good job
but blockstream and core team highlight the bugs that existed in their own 0.12 when other teams use their 0.12
and then call anything independent an altcoin while core becomes more dependnt on the blockstream DCG partnership

and you wont hear much about independent teams activities due to the BIPs moderations mailing list moderation coindesk biased media speculation and market announcements all following their VC opinion.(dcg)