By Bitcoin Magazine - 10개월 전 - 읽는 시간: 6분
Ark 소개: 대안 Bitcoin 개인 정보 보호에 중점을 둔 확장 솔루션
금융 포용 옹호자이자 만델라 워싱턴 펠로우인 Kudzai Kutukwa의 의견 사설입니다.
“When use of strong cryptography becomes popular, it's harder for the government to criminalize it. Therefore, using PGP is good for preserving democracy. If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy… PGP empowers people to take their privacy into their own hands. There has been a growing social need for it. That's why I wrote it.”
-Phil Zimmerman, “Why I Wrote PGP"
XNUMXD덴탈의 케이스 of Roman Sterlingov, who stands accused of running the custodial Bitcoin mixer, "Bitcoin Fog," is indicative of the many situations in which individuals are targeted by law enforcement for safeguarding their financial privacy.
As outlined in “뭐 Bitcoin 그랬어,” the U.S. Department of Justice relied on Chainalysis' Reactor software to trace the purchase of the Bitcoin Fog domain back to an address linked to Sterlingov’s Mt. Gox account, establishing him as its operator. Reactor was designed to tie cryptocurrency addresses with real-world identities. Despite the various irregularities present in this 진행중인 사건, "당신은 재정적 프라이버시를 가지지 않을 것입니다."라는 분명한 메시지를 보낸다는 결론을 내릴 수 있습니다.
아크 소개
Given this growing hostility toward financial privacy for Bitcoin transactions, there is a pressing need for the development of superior tools. At the recently concluded Bitcoin 2023 conference, a potentially game-changing tool, called the Ark Protocol, 소개되었습니다.
Announced during one of the keynote sessions on the open-source stage by developer 부락, Ark is a Layer 2 scaling solution that enables cheap, anonymous and off-chain Bitcoin transactions. The protocol also has a minimal on-chain footprint, which further protects user privacy while keeping transaction costs low. In what can be described as an “accidental invention” that occurred when Burak was trying to develop a Lightning wallet, Ark is a distinct protocol that could potentially scale non-custodial bitcoin 사용합니다.
Burak named the protocol "Ark" in reference to 노아의 방주, which acts as a lifeboat that provides refuge from predatory blockchain surveillance firms and custodians.
출처During his presentation, Burak highlighted one of the most concerning trends with the Lightning Network today, which is that there are currently more custodial users of Lightning than there are non-custodial ones. This is mainly due to the 유동성 제약 on Lightning that require non-custodial users to first receive liquidity from someone else’s node before they can receive funds. Custodial wallets like Wallet Of Satoshi abstract this problem away from the user but at the expense of the user not being 100% in control of their funds, as well as their financial privacy.
대체 레이어 2 프로토콜
Ark에 대한 깊은 이해와 개발에 대한 영감을 얻기 위해 Burak을 인터뷰했습니다. 그가 대체 레이어 2 프로토콜을 개발하게 된 이유에 대해 질문했을 때 그는 이렇게 말했습니다.
“저는 인바운드 유동성 문제, 비동기 수신 및 온체인 발자국 때문에 항상 Lightning을 비판해 왔습니다. 인바운드 유동성은 나에게 항상 버그처럼 느껴졌고, 이는 사용자 경험을 결코 유쾌하게 만들지 못했습니다. 그 외에도 각 사람이 각각 수백 vbytes를 소비하는 XNUMX개의 채널을 가지고 있다고 가정할 때 전 세계 인구가 관리되지 않는 방식으로 라이트닝 네트워크에 온보딩하는 데 XNUMX년 이상이 걸릴 것입니다.”
그가 이러한 문제와 다른 문제를 해결하기 시작하면서 그의 라이트닝 지갑 아이디어는 결국 Ark로 바뀌었습니다.
“Ark can be best defined as trustless e-cash or a liquidity network similar to the Lightning Network but with a UTXO set that lives entirely off-chain and it’s neither a statechain nor a rollup,” Burak said. “These UTXOs are called ‘virtual UTXOs’ or ‘vTXOs,’ which have a ‘lifespan’ of four weeks. The core of Ark's anonymous off-chain payments is driven by the vTXOs.”
Throughout the conversation, Burak continued to emphasize his obsession with a frictionless experience for the end user, his view being that sending sats should be as easy as pushing a button. This is one of the reasons why Ark users do not need to have channels or liquidity, as this is delegated to a network of untrusted intermediaries known as Ark service providers (ASPs). These are always-on servers that provide liquidity to the network, similarly to how 라이트닝 서비스 제공업체 operate, but with an added benefit: ASPs are unable to link senders with receivers, which adds another layer of privacy for users.
This is made possible by the fact that every payment on Ark takes place within a 코인 조인 round which obfuscates the connection between sender and receiver. The best part about this is that the CoinJoin happens entirely off-chain while settling payments every five seconds, which not only drastically reduces on-chain footprints but also fortifies the users’ privacy. The anonymity set is every party involved in a transaction and, theoretically, this creates a greater degree of privacy than what’s possible on the Lightning Network. Furthermore, Ark mimics on-chain user experiences in that users have a dedicated address for sending and receiving payments, but the difference is that it’s a reusable address that doesn’t compromise the user’s privacy, made possible in a way that’s similar to how 자동 결제 작업.
보상
그러나 다른 시스템과 마찬가지로 Ark에도 장단점이 있습니다. 라이트닝만큼 빠르게 즉각적인 결제를 제공하지는 않지만 Burak이 "최종 지연이 있는 즉각적인 가용성"이라고 설명한 확인을 기다릴 필요 없이 자금에 대한 즉각적인 접근성을 제공합니다.
For vendors, Lightning is still the better option when it comes to receiving payments. Additionally, liquidity providers are required, but based on the assumption that individuals will be motivated to offer liquidity to earn yield in bitcoin, Burak also thinks this challenge can be easily overcome in the long term. This novel proposition addresses certain shortcomings in Lightning, yet also comes with its own set of challenges.
앞서가는 길
요약하면, Ark 프로토콜은 유동성 제약이나 상호 작용을 부과하지 않고 발신자와 수신자 간의 직접적인 연결이 필요하지 않고 원활한 거래를 가능하게 하는 일방적 종료 기능을 갖춘 고유한 두 번째 계층 확장 솔루션입니다. 따라서 수취인은 온보딩 설정의 번거로움 없이 쉽게 지불을 받을 수 있으며 지속적인 서버 존재를 유지하거나 제XNUMX자에 대한 익명성을 손상시킬 수 있습니다. 확장 가능하고 비수탁 솔루션으로 설계된 Ark는 사용자가 자금을 완벽하게 제어할 수 있도록 하고 모든 사람이 자금을 스스로 관리할 수 있는 옵션을 제공합니다.
Ark is interoperable with Lightning, but also serves as a complement to it. However, due to the complicated process of self-custodial Lightning and varying levels of privacy for senders and receivers, along with the imminent danger posed by blockchain surveillance firms, scaling solutions that prioritize privacy, like Ark, have become essential. The various attempts to attack Bitcoin through malicious prosecution, like in the case of Sterlingov, and predatory legislation such as the EU's 운모, demonstrate the need for scalable, efficient, privacy-preserving tools in order to prevent future issues.
It’s against this background that I think Ark is an interesting concept worth keeping an eye on as development of the protocol unfolds. Of course, without code to review at the moment or a battle-tested, working prototype, it’s still a long road ahead. Despite the unforeseen challenges ahead, Burak is optimistic about Ark’s potential and is convinced that it’s a breakthrough that strikes the balance between private Bitcoin transactions and scalability, in a user-friendly manner. A sentiment that I also share, given the vital need for non-custodial, privacy-preserving tools.
This is a guest post by Kudzai Kutukwa. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin 매거진.