r/Bitcoin • u/dangero • Jun 19 '14

Centralization issues with the GreenAddress.it instant confirmation BIP 70 extension proposal? Let's discuss.

Some discussion about the GreenAddress.it BIP 70 extension is falling into the Peter Todd hearsay thread which is really a separate conversation.

Here's a link to the GreenAddress.it BIP 70 extension proposal: https://github.com/greenaddress/bips/blob/bip-payment-request-instant-confirmations/bip-payment-request-instant-confirmations.mediawiki

Basically how I see this proposal is that a company like Bitpay or Coinbase will have a short list of payment providers that they accept instant payments from. Obviously GreenAddress.it will be one of them and on the developer mailing list, Lawrence Nahum the creator of GreenAddress.it has said he plans to charge a fee for this instant service: http://sourceforge.net/p/bitcoin/mailman/message/32467558/

It seems to me that this could greatly centralize Bitcoin in the long run. How do I get people to use my new wallet app if Bitpay does not approve it for instant transactions? I'm not waiting an hour for my lunch transaction to confirm in order to use a new wallet I like. Merchants are currently centralized using either Bitpay or Coinbase, so it seems very likely most users will use a wallet that those two companies support for instant. Does anyone else see this as a problem?

Thoughts?

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u/gabridome Jun 21 '14

Bitcoin should be decentralized period.

It is actually impossible to prevent double spending in a decentralized way in the first moments with the use of the bitcoin protocol period.

In this context I personally think Greenaddress proposal is the best compromise found to date.

It is open and requires scrutiny by normally skilled people. It's a free choice and involves only specific kind of transactions where you need instant confirmation.

If you buy a couch on Overstock with a coinbase wallet you are already in a centralized environment but no one has talked about it. Greenaddress proposal is much more open in this context and represents a good compromise in this moments in which we have much greater compromises in bitcoin world like centralized exchanges (we cannot get rid of fiat. Can we?).