by Jack Taylor

Bitcoin core developer, Mike Hearn, released a short video on YouTube, bringing us all up to speed on what the core developers at the Bitcoin Foundation are working on. Security, stability, and keeping Bitcoin transactions inexpensive are the primary focal points. The following is a brief overview of the changes they hope to implement in 2014.

Bitcoin wallets will be standardized. Presently most wallets generally communicate to one another, and to the Bitcoin network without any problem. Where issues arise is in attempting to import or export a wallet from one app to another. Developers hope to resolve these issues by using what Hearn called “HD (hierarchical deterministic)” wallets as a standard for all wallets. This would allow quick and trouble free transfer between apps. If, for example, you have a blockchain.info wallet and want to import it into your android phone app, this update will make that easily achievable. Apparently these changes also have important implications to the upcoming release of the Trezor “hardware” wallets as well. Trezor wallets are anticipated to begin shipping later this month.

Next on the agenda are scrapping Bitcoin addresses in favor of a payment protocol containing small files. This will allow for implementation of such things as refund addresses, payment instructions, embedded messages between parties of a transaction, as well as receipts for the transaction, with “version 1.0” leaving plenty of room for future expansion of features.

Third item on the list was changing the way transaction fees are calculated and which party can elect to pay them. Currently minimum transaction fees are hard coded into the core protocol, as BTC prices have risen by multiples, so have those minimum fees, with no accompanying rise in the cost to handle them. So to correct this problem and keep transaction costs low, the development team will be attempting to change this to a floating system. A change Hearn is hoping will begin to force the transaction fees back down prior to the, soon to be implemented, scalability upgrades aimed at expanding the transactions threshold past seven transactions per second.

Moving on, Hearn raised the question, “Can we route all traffic through Tor by default?” Encrypting transaction data between peers is the main concern, as using certain apps to make payments currently leave transactions completely unencrypted. The second issue, to hopefully be addressed, is potential Wi-Fi attacks. Though they are not yet a problem in Hearn’s view, there seems to be a wide open, exploitable hole in the system here. The problem could be solved by validating that you are in fact connected to the real Bitcoin network versus a simulated one. This leads to creating all kinds of interesting problems while trying to solve them, the discussion completely intriguing and interesting.

Though I am far from a geek or software developer, I found this video interesting, compelling, educational and completely worth the 15 minutes to watch.

You can find the video at this link:

http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2014/01/24/4-new-bitcoin-features-revealed-mike-hearn/

The change has already happened, and you are now experiencing the effects of that change. Getting yourself aligned with where the world is now heading will be the best decision you ever make!

peace.

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