SilentPayments.xyz is a proposed Bitcoin payment protocol under the BIP352 that allows for greatly improved privacy. The system presented herein enables the ability of users to receive payments on a single static paranoia-free reusable address, unloading any extra on-chain overhead by using scripting and cryptographic techniques that also allow much better privacy.
It's a very curious implementation of the initial Stealth Address proposal, it has begun to gain popularity in the Bitcoin community due to its promised simpler, safer UI, and better UX. This obviously means a cost on transparency and providing the user a way to understand what's going on behind the interface. Maybe it still too early and much more need to come to enrich the UX/Ui.
So, I took time to dive a bit deeper on silent payments in the past few days and tested the few apps where has been already implemented:
- Dana Wallet (Android only) you can read more on #684460
- Silentium.io (Web/PWA) https://app.silentium.dev/
- Cake wallet (tested on iPhone, also available on Android and any OS) https://cakewallet.com/ yes I know, is a shitcoin wallet, but if you only add the bitcoin networks it becomes a bitcoin-only wallet ;)
Each app provide a slightly different UX, however, the major blockers I found are:
- Scanning the blockchain and the time needed to complete,
- Defining the "Wallet Birthdate", a new concept that ins't that intuitive and maybe should be different named or maybe automated somehow,
- Transaction speed: as silent payments protocol is directly attached to the blockchain, sometime it take time for transactions to be confirmed
- Transaction cost, depend on onchain fees so depending on the season it could be inaccessible or unavailable depending on the transaction amount
In a nutshell, I recognize SilentPayments' potential with its intent of merging the anonymity that Coinjoin today somehow differently provides and the reusability of a single address that has been proposed with PayNym BIP47 currently implemented on Sparrow Wallet.
Yes, ok, from a UX perspective, no interaction between the users is required, and there is no need for more bitcoin transactions than those strictly necessary, directly onchain. However, getting rid of the notification transaction creates an entirely new problem for the recipient that does not know it has received some sats until he check the wallet and scan again the latest blocks.
My intent with this post was to share some thoughts I had when testing these wallets, I'm also interested on your thoughts about silent payments, did you test it somehow or had the opportunity to send some BTC to someone else? How was the experience for you and for the receiver? What do you think is missing in the current UX/Ui and how can we do it better?