Hello all.
I have some questions around payment channels on zcash. For me they are in my top 6 things that zcash needs for mass adoption and their absence was one of my first questions when joining zcg ZSA’s are coming, sheilded multisig is coming, dag sync is coming, trusted setup is gone. Payment channels are not being talked about that i have seen. For me to say zcash is on its way to reach its full potential; i want to keep a majority of my zec in a shielded multisig and use payment channels like a checking account. If 8 billion humans are to adopt zec and the ZSA’s built on top of it, zkChannels need to happen.
From my forum diving, NU5 tx malleabililty and Transparent zcash extensions were needed to make this happen. Nu5 has come and gone. Zip-222 & ZIP-225 are final.
Moving trivial transactions off chain into payment channels will not only relieve network spam like memo chat, it will enable many more services to be build on top of zcash. The core privacy layer provides unparalleled privacy at rest. It is not great at allowing nodes to efficiently determine which transactions to care about when syncing. Maybe dagsync, warpsync, and snapshots will releive some pressure. They will not be enough to support daily global transactions for even 1 billion people assuming the do an average of 5 tx a day.
Here is a view of the network crushing transaction spam from last year that destroyed all the mobile wallets:
And here is that same chart with the bitcoin networks transactions overlaid:
Payment channels fix this. They can move users from 5 tx a day to 2 a month easily. Top up your channels on payday. The technology isn’t theoretical either. Bolt labs delivered. zkChannels library and a demo app zeekoe built on tezos(‽) exist today.
ZSA’s are coming and have opened the discussion on base fees, network throughput, and how to prevent top heavy economic threats. ZSA’s on payment channels is in my opinion the holy grail of zec. I want to pay nostr relay subscription fee’s with zUSD and pay base network fees very seldomly. Moving zUSD on chain and paying base fees is not what i care about when i think of how I want to use it.
Some q’s i have:
Which groups are working on bringing payment channels to zec and what challenges are you facing?
What work is needed for ZSA’s over zkChannels?
Which wallets have payment channels on their road map?
Can I wrecklessley run payment channels today on testnet or mainnet?
(ill fix formatting and grammar after some coffee)
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