Anonymous Blockchain Micropayments Advance With ‘Bolt’

Can blockchain micropayments be fast, decentralized and private?

That question arguably forms the core of a new white paper penned by researchers at Johns Hopkins University that explores methods for bringing greater anonymity to off-blockchain micropayment networks.

In the paper, researchers Matthew Green and Ian Miers explore privacy in the context of micropayment channels and outline a new scheme for blind off-chain lightweight transactions, or Bolt, which they believe will provide “private, instantaneous [and] anonymous payments”.

The proposal comes at a time when privacy efforts are mainly being directed toward on-blockchain payments, as opposed to those that would be carried out on top-level architecture. This, the paper argues, means privacy concerns related to proposed projects (such as bitcoin’s Lightning Network) have received less attention, despite the belief these networks will prove key to extending cryptocurrencies to more users.