Miner fee calculation and merchant API - new tools for the Bitcoin SV network

How can zero-confirmation transactions be secure? MAPI uses network topology for near-instant fraud detection, enabling a scalable peer-to-peer model for Bitcoin.

#1about 1 minute

Introducing the Merchant API for Bitcoin nodes

The Merchant API (MAPI) provides a standardized interface for merchants and applications to interact with Bitcoin nodes and miners.

#2about 3 minutes

Revisiting Satoshi's original vision for Bitcoin scaling

Satoshi Nakamoto's early writings envisioned a network that could scale massively and where transaction fees would become essential for miners.

#3about 3 minutes

Shifting from broadcast to peer-to-peer transactions

The legacy model of broadcasting all transactions is unscalable; the correct peer-to-peer model requires the merchant to settle the transaction, similar to cashing a check.

#4about 7 minutes

How network topology helps detect double-spending

The Bitcoin network is a highly connected small-world network, which allows for rapid propagation and immediate notification of double-spend attempts to the merchant.

#5about 7 minutes

Why miner incentives make double-spending impractical

Miners are rational, non-anonymous businesses with millions invested, making them highly unlikely to risk their reputation and revenue to facilitate a fraudulent transaction.

#6about 8 minutes

Exploring services offered through the Merchant API

Miners can offer value-added services via MAPI, including double-spend alerts, Merkle proofs for transaction inclusion, and storage for nLockTime transactions.

#7about 4 minutes

The evolution of miners into transaction processors

As block rewards diminish, miners must evolve into active transaction processors offering competitive services, a shift supported by MAPI's modular design.

#8about 7 minutes

Technical implementation of the Merchant API

MAPI is defined by a BRFC specification and uses REST API calls, Miner ID for cryptographic identity, and JSON envelopes to ensure deterministic signing of responses.

#9about 4 minutes

A deterministic approach to calculating transaction fees

The fee specification uses integer math to provide a deterministic way to calculate fees, supporting different rates for standard transactions versus data-only outputs.

#10about 2 minutes

Ecosystem adoption of the Merchant API

Several major miners and services, including TAAL, Mempool, and MatterPool, have already implemented MAPI to offer differentiated transaction processing services.

#11about 6 minutes

Q&A on MAPI and offline transaction security

The discussion addresses how MAPI differs from other APIs and explains how mechanisms like SPV proofs and Miner ID provide security for transactions in low-connectivity environments.

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