Maelstrom announced that Ron, known online as “MacGyver13”, is the fourth recipient of the Maelstrom Bitcoin Grant program, according to a press release sent to Bitcoin Magazine. Ron will make a silent payment in Bitcoin Improvement Recommendation 352.
“We are excited to be financially supporting Ron to include silent payments into the Bitcoin wallet,” said Maelstrom Arthur Hayes’ chief financial officer. “Many businessmen and users want to provide/display a single static address that won’t change, which is an important, effective and simple use case. With silent payments, this can still be done, while the linked address can be avoided reuse. Address reuse is the gold mine to monitor the organization, and in Maelstrom, we want to help stop it.”
In September 2023, Josie Baker and Ruben Somsen made silent payments. It allows people to create a single static address that is shared with friends, for donating or posting tips without sacrificing privacy. This eliminates the address REUSE, a key method for monitoring companies to use to track the behavior of blockchain users.
“With many software projects, even in Bitcoin, taking an idea from proposals to fully adopted solutions is the hardest part,” Josie said. “In the short time I worked with Ron, I was very excited about the progress I have made and I’m happy to work with him in next year’s adoption of silent payments with the goal of enabling an intuitive, seamless user experience while also protecting users’ financial privacy.”
Bitcoin privacy depends on the use of a new address, which usually requires the sender to interact with the receiver. Existing static address methods use notifications that increase costs and leak metadata. Silent payments not only avoid interactions and notifications, but also require a wallet to scan the blockchain. Multiple input usage has not yet been proven to be safe.
Silent payments are intended to implement:
- Zero transaction cost and overhead
- There is no connection between payment and static address
- No sender required to interact with the receiver
- Compatibility with privacy tools and modern wallet features
“My main focus is to coordinate development and testing efforts in the growing community, committed to integrating silent payments into desktop and mobile Bitcoin wallets,” said the new grantee of Maelstrom Ron. “By advancing silent payments with Bolt12 and BIP-353, we aim to enhance privacy and simplify the user experience, paving the way for wider adoption of Bitcoin as a payment solution.”
