Should Drivechains Come to Bitcoin? With Paul Sztorc - WBD540

Paul Sztorc is an independent Bitcoin researcher. In this
interview, we discuss drivechains, his 2015 proposal that’s the
focus of BiP 300 and 301. Drivechains facilitate sidechains on
Bitcoin, providing a bridge to new coins. The aim is to enable
developer creativity atop Bitcoin.


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In October 2014 Adam Back and other prominent Bitcoin developers
introduced the concept of sidechains to Bitcoin’s infrastructure.
In the paper, they stated “We propose a new technology, pegged
sidechains, which enables bitcoins and other ledger assets to be
transferred between multiple blockchains. This gives users access
to new and innovative cryptocurrency systems using the assets
they already own.”


Paul Sztorc then developed a proposal for a version of sidechains
in 2015 that were linked to Bitcoin’s mainchain. This proposal
would improve on the original sidechain idea in several ways: it
did not require independent miners for the sidechains, and
further, it did not require a hard-fork of Bitcoin.


A principle driver was to enable developers to create innovations
within Bitcoin, outside of the need to develop separate token
ecosystems. Various features, including a 1:1 peg, and a delayed
redemption period, were designed to mitigate the incentive to
create new alternative tokens for purely selfish financial
reasons, whilst facilitating an ecosystem for innovation.


In short, it was designed to remove the marketplace for altcoins
altogether, allowing Bitcoin to foster experimentation. And yet,
whilst being the basis for two Bitcoin Improvement Proposals,
drivechains are still yet to be adopted by the community. This is
perhaps not a surprise given Bitcoin’s focus on dependability and
reasonable concerns about impinging on Bitcoin’s robust security.


But, are these concerns valid?


Of course, the idea that we could retain a fixed monetary supply
on a secure base layer, and at the same time have the freedom to
experiment with new privacy technologies and programmability
seems like the best of both worlds. The question remains why this
strategy has not yet been broadly supported and adopted by the
network. The “work slowly and build things” philosophy in Bitcoin
is a core pillar of the Bitcoin value proposition as a reliable
monetary protocol. But can drivechains be a way of enabling
Bitcoin to become the gravitational centre for developers? Or, do
Drivechains pose an existential choice between security and
progress?