👉 Bitcoin Optech #255

  • summarizes discussion about allowing relay of txs containing taproot annex data
  • links to a silent payments draft BIP
  • includes ‘Waiting for confirmation #5: Policy for Protection of Node Resources’ from our series about tx relay & mempool inclusion

We started off our series by stating that much of Bitcoin’s privacy and censorship resistance stems from the decentralized nature of the network. The practice of users running their own nodes reduces central points of failure, surveillance, and censorship. It follows that one primary design goal for Bitcoin node software is high accessibility of running a node. Requiring each Bitcoin user to purchase expensive hardware, use a specific operating system, or spend hundreds of dollars per month in operational costs would very likely reduce the number of nodes on the network.