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Monero @monero.town WishfulAlbatross @monero.town

Borrowing ideas to improve Monero...

1. Double Spend Proofs

Improves: Convenience, security, and transaction speed

BCH has "instant" 0-conf transactions. I think XMR might be able to achieve something similar (although maybe not as fast because of Dandelion++) since both don't have RBF. This would make 0-conf transactions safer for smaller amounts and the vast majority of use cases.

2. Decentralized Governance Network Upgrade Consensus

Improves: Decentralization Wider reaching and more explicit consensus from Monero network for upgrades

So far, Monero's governance has worked out for it and there has been little to no contention with it's direction within the community. But XMRs governance is not as ideally decentralized as it should be. Again, I'm taking inspiration from another aspect of BCH that I think it does well. Their "CHIP" process, or a variation, is something XMR community should think about and consider adopting to make Monero more robust to capture.

3. Client Side Validation

Improves: Privacy and scalability

This one was inspired by a BTC project called RGB.

"RGB can scale in terms of transaction throughput, data size and network size. It doesn't keep any data on-chain (in any blockchain)..."

"No chain analysis is possible due to the absence of a transaction graph in blockchain. RGB uses zero-knowledge to protect the history of a fungible state. With RGB, the user is always in-charge of when, and what parts of the history and state to disclose, if needed."

4. Succinct STARK proofs for Monero blockchain

Improves: Greatly reduce space and time required to sync a node

Another couple BTC projects that Monero might be able to take advantage of.

"Currently transactions specify inputs and outputs, and verifying an input requires you to know the whole state of the system. With Utreexo, the holder of funds maintains a proof that the funds exist, and provides that proof at spending time to the other nodes. These proofs are compact (under 1KB) but do represent the main downside in the utreexo model they present an additional data transmission overhead which allows much smaller state."

5. Opportunistic Encryption

Possible improvement: Privacy and anonymity for Monero node communication

I'm actually unsure if this would just be completely redundant for Monero nodes. But thought to mention it just in case. Maybe it can help hide any residual metadata between peers, or offer an addtional layer, that Monero might not already cover.

https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0324.mediawiki

*I want to know your opinions on these ideas. Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas from other projects that might benefit Monero too.*

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8 comments

  • @WishfulAlbatross

    >2. Decentralized Governance

    CHIP process is quite complicated and seems to be focused exclusively on network upgrades. Also, calling it decentralized is misleading because some group of people has to oversee the process, maintain the repository etc etc

    But I agree that setting up something like RFC for Monero ecosystem is a good idea, because it will improve coordination and transparency. Someone even tried to start it back in 2014 (and failed): https://github.com/monero-developers/mips

    Such project would require some support from the community (to avoid the fate of the previous MIPS initiative), but I think it's doable. In Fediverse we have FEP process, which is very lightweight and can be used as a template.

    • Old comment, but i'll reply anyway.

      Regarding decentralized governance: There is no official repository as there are multiple differing node implementations. You will find that neither one holds a significant majority consensus. Especially when compared to BTC or specifically, Bitcoin Core. Each node author is significant in regards to CHIP.

      As a matter of fact, pretty recently, an outdated node implementation was able to garner development funds via Flipstarter in order to keep it in consensus. Nodes are actively funded by the community in order to keep decentralization.

      BCH at this point in time very well does fit the definition of Decentralized. It is not misleading.

      Also, +1 for 0-conf on XMR.

      • @Eggroley We were talking about CHIPs at https://bch.info/en/chips. There's a website and a github repo, likely controlled by the same person. Looks very official to me, and very centralized. More generally, there's no such thing as "decentralized governance". You can have anarchy / free market, or you can have a centralized decision making process, but not both.

    • Good points.

      Didn't know that, but I like those ideas. Anything that would decentralize and bring transparency to as many aspects of Monero as possible.

      We really do need some kind of MIPS. I wonder why it failed?

      • @WishfulAlbatross Looks like it was abandoned by the person who started it. And the only way to submit a MIP was privately via email. No public discussion, no peer review of proposals -- it's understandable why nobody wanted to participate.

        I could create a similar repo if anyone is willing to submit a proposal. I have no proposal ideas at the moment, but I wrote Monero-related proposals in the past (1, 2) for CASA (Chain Agnostic Standards Alliance)

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