Ron will be working on Silent Payments, as proposed in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 352. “We are excited to be financially supporting Ron
Maelstrom, a blockchain startup focused on privacy-enhancing technologies, has announced the fourth grantee for its Bitcoin Grant Program. The startup's CFO Arthur Hayes shared in a statement that Ron, known online as macgyver13, will be joining the program to work on integrating Silent Payments, as proposed in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 352.
“We are excited to be financially supporting Ron, in his mission on integrating Silent Payments into Bitcoin wallets,” said Hayes.
Many merchants and users want to provide/display a single static address that doesn’t change, which is an important, valid and simple use case. With this integration, they can still do that, while on-chain address re-use is avoided. Address re-use is a goldmine for the surveillance organisations, and at Maelstrom, they want to help put a stop to it.
In September 2023, Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 352: Silent Payments was proposed by Josie Baker and Ruben Somsen. The proposal builds upon prior work on multi-party input, aiming to create an efficient and practical system for realizing the vision of single, static addresses.
People can use these addresses to share with friends, use for donations, or post for tips. In doing so, they can avoid the need for address reuse, a key method used by surveillance firms to track user behavior on the blockchain.
“We are excited to be financially supporting Ron, in his mission on integrating Silent Payments into Bitcoin wallets,” said Hayes. “Many merchants and users want to provide/display a single static address that doesn’t change, which is an important, valid and simple use case. With this integration, they can still do that, while on-chain address re-use is avoided. Address re-use is a goldmine for the surveillance organisations, and at Maelstrom, we want to help put a snapshot to it.”
Bitcoin privacy depends on using new addresses, which often requires sender to receiver interaction. Existing static address methods use notifications that increase costs and leak metadata. Silent Payments avoids both interaction and notifications but requires wallets to scan the blockchain. Multi-party input use is not yet proven secure.
“My primary focus will be coordinating development and testing efforts within the growing community dedicated to integrating Silent Payments into desktop and mobile Bitcoin wallets,” said Ron. “By advancing Silent Payments alongside BOLT12 and BIP-353, we aim to enhance privacy and simplify the user experience, paving the way for broader adoption of Bitcoin as a payment solution.”
