By Bitcoin 雜誌 - 10 個月前 - 閱讀時間：6 分鐘
介紹方舟：另一種選擇 Bitcoin 專注於保護隱私的擴展解決方案
這是普惠金融倡導者兼華盛頓曼德拉研究員 Kudzai Kutukwa 發表的一篇評論社論。
“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“
手機殼 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 “事件 Bitcoin 沒,” 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 正在進行的案件，可以得出這樣的結論，它發出了一個明確的信息，即“你不應該擁有財務隱私”。
介紹方舟
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，被介紹。
Announced during one of the keynote sessions on the open-source stage by developer 布拉克， 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 使用。
Burak named the protocol "Ark" in reference to 諾亞方舟, which acts as a lifeboat that provides refuge from predatory blockchain surveillance firms and custodians.
資源During 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 流動性限制 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.
另一種第 2 層協議
我採訪了 Burak，以更深入地了解方舟及其開發背後的靈感。 當我問他是什麼促使他開發替代的第 2 層協議時，他說：
“我一直是閃電網絡的批評者，主要是因為入站流動性問題、異步接收以及它的鏈上足跡。 入站流動性對我來說總是感覺像是一個錯誤，這讓用戶體驗很不愉快。 除此之外，假設每個人有四個通道，每個通道消耗幾百個 vbytes，那麼以非監管方式將整個全球人口加入閃電網絡將需要一個多世紀的時間。”
當他著手解決這些問題和其他問題時，他的閃電錢包想法最終演變成方舟。
“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 閃電服務商 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 CoinJoin 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 靜默付款 工作。
權衡
然而，與任何其他系統一樣，方舟也有其自身的權衡取捨。 儘管它可能無法像閃電網絡那樣快速提供即時結算，但它提供了資金的即時可訪問性，而無需等待 Burak 所說的“立即可用並延遲最終確定”的確認。
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.
前方的路
總而言之，方舟協議是一種獨特的、具有單邊退出能力的第二層擴展解決方案，可以在不施加任何流動性限製或交互性的情況下實現無縫交易，也不需要發送方和接收方之間的直接連接。 因此，收款人可以輕鬆地接收付款，而無需任何入職設置的麻煩，保持持續的服務器存在或向第三方洩露他們的匿名性。 Ark 旨在成為一個可擴展的、非託管的解決方案，允許用戶完全控制他們的資金，並讓每個人都可以選擇自行託管他們的資金。
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 雲母, 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.
這是 Kudzai Kutukwa 的客座貼文。所表達的意見完全是他們自己的，並不一定反映 BTC Inc 或 Bitcoin 雜誌。
原始來源： Bitcoin 雜誌