220 sats \ 9 replies \ @rblb 17 Dec 2023 \ parent \ on: Liquid is not a scaling solution bitcoin
Thanks for your response. After doing more research, I now have a better grasp of fedimint. I agree that if it's scaled properly, it could be a promising better alternative to liquid, for the scaling and privacy part at least, i believe it is inferior for transparency.
However, I have reservations about the part you mentioned as irrelevant. While it's true that they may not be able to see your balance, my understanding is that they can potentially hold your BTC (not the IOU) hostage. This means they could restrict your trading outside the mint, impose KYC requirements for specific trades, or even compel you to "upgrade" the mint protocol to something else with different rules, as long as all guardians agree.
I recognize that this is a risk in liquid as well. However, the current state of liquid is a decentralized federation not under a specific authority or jurisdiction of entities that have a lot to lose if they were to attempt something. This stands in stark contrast to the PR campaign for fedimint, which encourages small secluded communities. These communities are vulnerable to government overreach or manipulation.
Let imagine a future world in which there are a few "gold chip" fedimints that are widely trusted. What features would those fedimints probably have?
- public known actors
- known history and reputation
- some sort of legal repercussion possible for bad acts
Its hard to imagine how - in practice - those "gold chip" fedimints are going to be materially different than current Liquid federation setup.
To be clear: I'm not against fedimints, far from it...I welcome the development.
Lastly, I think the "magic" of Liquid is the blinded / confidential transactions. I think this renders 99% of potential "censorship" ability of the federation moot.
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Confidential transactions are cool but I'm not sure if there's the risk/incentive of amount-based transaction censorship with regards to each federation (Liquid or a gold chip Fedimint). Blinded amounts mainly seem to help with maintaining privacy among peers while still having an auditable circulating amount.
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I think the most important thing about fedimints is how they verify the supply. What's stopping one mint from inflating the supply?
I'm sure there's a good answer, I just haven't heard it yet.
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you're trusting them with custody, inflation should be the least of your worries
it boils down to if you trust them or you dont