Weighing the pros and cons of the current debate in the Bitcoin community over whether to include the full RBF in the next Bitcoin Core update.
Weighing the pros and cons of the current debate in the Bitcoin community over whether to include the full RBF in the next Bitcoin Core update.
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In this episode of “Bitcoin, Explained,” hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost revisit the replacement node-by-fee (RBF) policy. As they mentioned in episode 65, the next version of Bitcoin Core – Bitcoin Core 24.0 – includes the option to enable “full RBF”, but this has since caused quite a stir in the Bitcoin community. Van Wirdum and Provoost explain what this fuss is all about and highlight some of the new arguments for and against full RBF.
RBF has been the subject of a precedent Episode “Bitcoin, Explained”, therefore, van Wirdum and Provoost do not go into an in-depth explanation of what exactly RBF is or how it works. However, they briefly summarize its most important aspects.
Van Wirdum and Provoost then explain why the developers of Bitcoin Core initially decided to include this feature, and they discuss some of the recent arguments for and against full RBF. These include the effect of RBF on “pinning attacks” – a type of attack that is particularly relevant to the Lightning Network and other Layer 2 protocols – the relative security of accepting unconfirmed transactions today Today, privacy-related arguments regarding the “opt-in” signal that RBF transactions currently use, the detrimental effects of network monitoring for potential double spend and more.
Van Wirdum and Provoost also discuss the pros and cons of including RBF as an optional feature and thus allowing node operators to decide for themselves how their node handles conflicting unconfirmed transactions. Provoost explains why, in some cases, giving users more options could have adverse effects on the health of the Bitcoin network, and wonders if the option to include the RBF option is such a case.
Finally, van Wirdum and Provoost briefly discuss an initiative by full RBF advocate Peter Todd to get miners to apply full RBF logic to their transaction selection.