In my opinion, the goal is to scale the system in such a way that every person has the option to own an UTXO, but be disincentivized from creating more than that.
Currently, there are only
53 million different funded Bitcoin addresses. That's barely enough for 0.5% of the world population, and having only one address is terrible for your privacy. So just for UTXOs, we're going to need a lot more blockspace.
For example, in Ark, you wouldn't need more than that.
Is that the same
ARK on CMC? It looks like a shitcoin with a very typical shitcoin hype-site. Or is it
something else after all? The name alone is confusing, and sounds nothing like Bitcoin. So if this is a scaling solution, how are users even supposed to link it to Bitcoin (especially now that even BS ordinals use Bitcoin's name to sell their scam)?
You might not even need an UTXO. You'll just download an Ark client, choose a server, generate an address and you're ready to go. You give it to anyone, create your VTXOs, and if you ever want to leave for some reason, you can exit (either unilaterally or not). But you would be disincentivized from doing so.
No inbound liquidity problems, no channel maintenance, no backups, no computer running for 24 hours a day, no bullshit. Just a pair of keys, and that's it, as it should.
It sounds good, but just like LN, it also sounds very complicated. If I can't find how it works within 10 minutes, how are Bitcoin beginners ever going to use it?
Shared UTXOs
The Ark protocol is built around the idea of shared UTXOs. In principle, Lightning also has shared UTXOs, however they are only shared between the two channel counterparties. In Ark, UTXOs are shared among a large amount of users, potentially up to tens or hundreds of thousands of users.
While in the Lightning Network, payments are made by atomically shifting an amount of Bitcoin in a series of channels, in Ark, payments are made by exchanging a share in an existing shared UTXO for a share in a new shared UTXO. These shares of UTXOs will be called virtual UTXOs, or VTXOs.
These exchanges are coordinated by a central party, an Ark Service Provider (ASP), that facilitates payments, but is never a custodian. Because the UTXO is shared among the users in the shared UTXO, they can claim back there Bitcoin at all times without depending on the ASP by broadcasting their VTXO transactions.
So if thousands of users all share the same UTXOs, and the Ark Service Provider disappears, do they all need to have an on-chain settlement? So thousands of high-fee on-chain Bitcoin transactions?
Please correct me if I've misunderstood. I'm still trying to grasp the concept.
I couldn't help notice that a year after you created the topic, you're still having a hard time understanding how it works. That's not very promising for mass adoption.