Re:No Bitcoin-based protocol can handle more than 20M users ...
by nickodell on Sunday October 08, 2017 @07:02PM
(#15430517)
There are several reasons why that wouldn't make sense.
1. Bitcoin nodes have no special knowledge of transactions. There is nothing that you can get from a subpoena of my Bitcoin node that you cannot get from blockchain.info.
2. Bitcoin nodes can't meaningfully object to transactions that they're not party to. You could refuse to validate a block that contained an illegal transaction, but that would have no effect unless pretty much everybody did the same thing.
3. These laws don't make sense applied to Bitcoin nodes. For example, there's a law saying that transactions over $10,000 must be reported to the government. There are several thousand Bitcoin nodes. Does that mean that FinCEN wants to receive 5000 copies of a report saying that a high-value transaction just appeared? No, of course not.
In contrast, lightning nodes do have meaningful non-public information about transactions, and they can refuse to relay a transaction.
1. Bitcoin nodes have no special knowledge of transactions. There is nothing that you can get from a subpoena of my Bitcoin node that you cannot get from blockchain.info.
2. Bitcoin nodes can't meaningfully object to transactions that they're not party to. You could refuse to validate a block that contained an illegal transaction, but that would have no effect unless pretty much everybody did the same thing.
3. These laws don't make sense applied to Bitcoin nodes. For example, there's a law saying that transactions over $10,000 must be reported to the government. There are several thousand Bitcoin nodes. Does that mean that FinCEN wants to receive 5000 copies of a report saying that a high-value transaction just appeared? No, of course not.
In contrast, lightning nodes do have meaningful non-public information about transactions, and they can refuse to relay a transaction.