Newsletters: add 284 (2024-01-10)

_topics/en/anchor-outputs.md

@@ -155,6 +155,9 @@ optech_mentions:
   - title: "Core Lightning #6334 updates and expands CLN's experimental support for anchor outputs"
     url: /en/newsletters/2023/07/05/#core-lightning-6334
 
+  - title: Discussion about LN anchors and v3 transaction relay proposal
+    url: /en/newsletters/2024/01/10/#discussion-about-ln-anchors-and-v3-transaction-relay-proposal
+
 ## Optional.  Same format as "primary_sources" above
 see_also:
   - title: CPFP carve-out

_topics/en/eltoo.md

@@ -24,6 +24,9 @@ primary_sources:
     - title: Eltoo
       link: https://blockstream.com/eltoo.pdf
 
+    - title: LN-Symmetry Project
+      link: https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/ln-symmetry-project-recap/359
+
 ## Optional.  Each entry requires "title", "url", and "date".  May also use "feature:
 ## true" to bold entry
 optech_mentions:
@@ -75,6 +78,9 @@ optech_mentions:
   - title: "Using eltoo-compatible covenants to improve LN scalability"
     url: /en/newsletters/2023/09/27/#using-covenants-to-improve-ln-scalability
 
+  - title: "LN-Symmetry research implementation with summary of initial results"
+    url: /en/newsletters/2024/01/10/#ln-symmetry-research-implementation
+
 ## Optional.  Same format as "primary_sources" above
 see_also:
   - title: SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT

_topics/en/ephemeral-anchors.md

@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ optech_mentions:
   - title: "Making ephemeral anchor spends with non-malleable txids"
     url: /en/newsletters/2023/11/15/#eliminating-malleability-from-ephemeral-anchor-spends
 
+  - title: Discussion about ephemeral anchors for LN and v3 transaction relay proposal
+    url: /en/newsletters/2024/01/10/#discussion-about-ln-anchors-and-v3-transaction-relay-proposal
+
 ## Optional.  Same format as "primary_sources" above
 see_also:
   - title: V3 Transaction Relay

_topics/en/out-of-band-fees.md

@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+---
+title: Out-of-band fees
+
+## Optional.  Shorter name to use for reference style links e.g., "foo"
+## will allow using the link [topic foo][].  Not case sensitive
+# shortname: foo
+
+## Optional.  An entry will be added to the topics index for each alias
+#aliases:
+#  - Foo
+
+## Required.  At least one category to which this topic belongs.  See
+## schema for options
+categories:
+  - Fee Management
+  - Security Problems
+
+## Optional.  Produces a Markdown link with either "[title][]" or
+## "[title](link)"
+#primary_sources:
+#    - title: Test
+#    - title: Example
+#      link: https://example.com
+
+## Optional.  Each entry requires "title" and "url".  May also use "feature:
+## true" to bold entry and "date"
+optech_mentions:
+  - title: "Discussion of HTLC mining incentives and out-of-band fees"
+    url: /en/newsletters/2020/07/01/#discussion-of-htlc-mining-incentives
+
+  - title: Discussion about submitting transactions directly to miners
+    url: /en/newsletters/2021/11/03/#submitting-transactions-directly-to-miners
+
+  - title: "Improvements to features for miners that accept out-of-band fees"
+    url: /en/newsletters/2023/05/10/#bitcoin-core-pr-review-club
+
+  - title: Discussion about the effect of out-of-band fees on proposed fee-dependent timelocks
+    url: /en/newsletters/2024/01/03/#fee-dependent-timelocks
+
+  - title: "Frequent use of exogenous fees may risk mining decentralization due to out-of-band fees"
+    url: /en/newsletters/2024/01/10/#frequent-use-of-exogenous-fees-may-risk-mining-decentralization
+
+## Optional.  Same format as "primary_sources" above
+see_also:
+  - title: Fee sniping
+    link: topic fee sniping
+
+## Optional.  Force the display (true) or non-display (false) of stub
+## topic notice.  Default is to display if the page.content is below a
+## threshold word count
+#stub: false
+
+## Required.  Use Markdown formatting.  Only one paragraph.  No links allowed.
+## Should be less than 500 characters
+
+excerpt: >
+  **Out-of-band fees** are payments made directly to a specific miner
+  (or group of miners) in exchange for confirming one or more
+  transactions.  They can be contrasted with standard in-band fees that
+  are paid using the fee implied by the difference in a transaction's
+  input and output value.
+
+---
+For example, Alice broadcasts a transaction at a feerate that is low
+relative to other transactions in typical miner mempools.  Alice wants
+to increase its feerate but is unable to use either [RBF][topic rbf] or
+[CPFP][topic cpfp] fee bumping.  Instead, she contacts a miner directly
+and pays them to include the transaction in their candidate blocks,
+which will eventually lead to confirmation (unless the miner gives up).
+Alice's payment can be completely independent of her transaction; she
+may even pay using a non-bitcoin form of currency.
+
+Consistent use of out-of-band fees weakens Bitcoin's censorship
+resistance.  Miners controlling a large amount of hash rate produce
+blocks more consistently than smaller miners, meaning someone such as
+Alice who wants a transaction confirmed quickly will put more effort
+into paying large miners than paying small miners.  For example, if
+Alice pays miners controlling 55% of hashrate to include her transaction
+in their block candidates, there's a 99% chance that her transaction
+will be confirmed within 6 blocks: `1 - (1 - 0.55)**6`
+
+The advantage to Alice of paying small miners out of band is minuscule,
+likely meaning they will not receive the same opportunity to earn fees
+as large miners.  If large miners earn a significantly higher percentage of profit than
+small miners for a long period of time, we would expect large miners to
+control a majority of total network hash rate.  The fewer entities that
+control a majority of hash rate, the fewer entities there are that need
+to be compromised to censor which transactions get included in blocks.
+
+{% include references.md %}
+{% include linkers/issues.md issues="" %}

_topics/en/version-3-transaction-relay.md

@@ -58,6 +58,9 @@ optech_mentions:
   - title: Discussion about the costs of pinning when v3 policies are used
     url: /en/newsletters/2024/01/03/#v3-transaction-pinning-costs
 
+  - title: Discussion about LN anchors and v3 transaction relay proposal
+    url: /en/newsletters/2024/01/10/#discussion-about-ln-anchors-and-v3-transaction-relay-proposal
+
 ## Optional.  Same format as "primary_sources" above
 see_also:
   - title: Transaction pinning