* [bitcoindev] A safe way to remove objectionable content from the blockchain (now on GitHub)
@ 2025-12-06 6:41 Lazy Fair
0 siblings, 0 replies; only message in thread
From: Lazy Fair @ 2025-12-06 6:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Bitcoin Development Mailing List
Cc: erik, ekaggata, pete, saintwenhao, eth3rs, gmaxwell
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 4166 bytes --]
I've started putting together some ideas around how to remove objectionable
content from the blockchain. The very early work-in-progress description is
on GitHub: https://github.com/laissez-faire-btc/safe-remove
I won't include all the details here, because there's necessarily a lot to
cover, but the basic design goals I've aimed to address are something like
this:
* optional - each node gets to decide what to remove, if anything
* safe - provably no harm is done to those not choosing to use it, and any
cost or risk to those using it is well understood, minimal, and mitigated
* full node functionality - a node that does remove content can still do
everything it could have done otherwise, without relying on anyone else
* retrospective - content that exists on the blockchain today
(pre-implementation) can be removed later (post-implementation)
* trustless, verifiable, permissionless - control messages enabling data to
be removed are simple verifiable statements of fact that can be written by
anybody
* lightweight - minimal changes and impact to policy, consensus,
implementation, usage, the economy
* granularity, associativity, commutability, idempotence - the least
possible data is removed, and ordering is inconsequential
* transferable - nodes that choose to remove objectionable content can
share those blocks (with content removed) with others who hold the same
objection, so that the receiver may never even momentarily hold the
objectionable content
Being design goals, these are probably not all achievable. I'll need your
help to work through all the details.
I have some more notes I just haven't written up yet, so I'm keen for your
input please, on what direction I should take, questions I should answer,
aspects I should consider or detail further, etc.
In the absence of any feedback, I'll be proceeding with either documenting
the threat model, or a bit of a literature review - starting with the
following, which I've found but not yet dived into:
* "Redactable Blockchain in the Permissionless Setting", Deuber et al,
2019, https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.03206
* "Redactable Blockchain: Comprehensive Review, Mechanisms, Challenges,
Open Issues and Future Research Directions", Abd Ali et al, 2023,
https://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/15/1/35
P.S: I've had some issues with this mailing list. I emailed a few weeks
back and my first email got through (
https://groups.google.com/g/bitcoindev/c/sn3-Uc1yPx4), but my second and
third didn't. I think Google has labelled me a spammer (or, hopefully, just
the previous thread, as spam). There was one obvious spam message to the
thread (most people won't have seen it because it will definitely have
failed at moderation, but I did get it because it was reply-all - not just
to the mailing list). From what I can see, Gmail classifies spam only at
the conversation / thread level, not the individual email level - it's all
or nothing. I found this out myself when I tried to mark that one email as
spam, and the entire thread (including my original email) got marked as
spam and moved to my spam folder. So it's possible others in the
conversation unintentional marked my email as spam. Regardless of specific,
my emails under that thread are certainly being blocked somehow. If anyone
knows more about this, please reach out. Hopefully this email isn't a waste
of time - but if it doesn't show up on the mailing list archive, I guess
I'll have to create a new email address and try again.
I've cc'd others from that thread, into this new one. Thank you to those
who provided feedback there. You may not have seen my replies, but please
know that I was paying attention! Certainly, you'll see the design is
significantly changed and improved.
Laissez faire, laissez passer.
Let it be, let it go.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bitcoin Development Mailing List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bitcoindev+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bitcoindev/CABHzxrjfvyBRD7sG9rngvDhr9cfzLEQibn4bup_J8pz7UHQpqA%40mail.gmail.com.
[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 5398 bytes --]
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] only message in thread
only message in thread, other threads:[~2025-12-10 18:12 UTC | newest]
Thread overview: (only message) (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2025-12-06 6:41 [bitcoindev] A safe way to remove objectionable content from the blockchain (now on GitHub) Lazy Fair
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox