Alternative to Digital Signatures in Transactions?

Hey everyone! So I’ve been diving into the Bitcoin White paper and came across this line about electronic coins being a chain of digital signatures. Basically, each owner signs off a hash of the previous owner’s hash and their own public key. It got me thinking... is there any way to handle this without using digital signatures? I know it sounds almost impossible, but just wanted to throw it out there. Any thoughts?

Not sure why you’d even want to skip digital signatures. They’re key for proving ownership of coins. Without them, how can anyone trust that you’re actually the owner? It’s all about the link between your public key and your private key.

Well, you could technically create addresses where Bitcoin could be spent without a digital signature. Just gotta play around with P2SH, P2WSH, or P2TR and sort out the spending rules. Check out the rewards for hash collisions for different algorithms... there are some examples.

Honestly, at this point, there’s no other tech that can prove ownership of a coin like a digital signature does. It’s what lets us show we own a public key without exposing our private key. That’s why the white paper mentions this chain of signatures, because it's all about moving coins securely between owners.

Exactly. Once you remove digital signatures, you lose the proof of ownership. It’s what lets the network confirm that the current owner gave the thumbs up for the transfer. So, yeah, moving coins without them isn’t really feasible.

Are you speaking about your idea for a "trustless credit" that aims to decentralize collaterals? If you can code something using regular Bitcoin OP_Codes that skips OP_CHECKSIG/OP_CHECKMULTISIG, you might be able to do some unique stuff. But none of the nodes might relay it, because they prefer standard scripts. Just a thought.

Nah, the trustless credit concept isn’t my focus. I’m exploring whether transactions can happen without digital signatures so that quantum computers can’t use Shor’s algorithm to snag a private key from a public key on-chain. My ideas are shifting; I’m leaning towards creating an offline e-cash system for peer-to-peer transactions without internet. Bitcoin kinda hinges on online networks.

To spend a coin, you still need some proof of ownership while keeping your private key hidden. That’s all about what digital signatures do. No clue if there’s another way to prove ownership without exposing anything. What’s sparked your interest in this? Sounds like the XY Problem.

If you’re thinking of a new coin, it shouldn’t be locked by Bitcoin’s rules unless it’s a fork. So make sure your question is clear enough that people don’t just think about Bitcoin when they reply. But for Bitcoin? Proving ownership without signatures? Just can’t happen, as others have pointed out. If you want to explore how Developers are tackling potential quantum computing threats, maybe check out the Bitcoin mailing list or dev discussions.