RSK Community Call - August 2021 Summary
Tags: rsk, blockchain, bitcoin
Published: 2021-09-02 09:05:48

_About expanding the emergency multi-sig, peg-out tx fee-bumping, time-lock refresh, bridge UTXOs selection, consolidation, and batching.

On 19th August 2021, The RSK Ecosystem held its third community call. The aim of these community calls is to discuss the [RSK Improvement Proposals - RSKIPs](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs), get the community involved, gather feedback, discuss the RSK consensus protocol, the formal process for proposing improvements, and the upcoming network upgrades. For more info, read the [RSKIP Purpose and Guidelines.](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/master/IPs/RSKIP0.md) 

[https://youtu.be/lZ0Y4VHvR4Q](https://youtu.be/lZ0Y4VHvR4Q)   

It was live-streamed on several platforms, thanks to everyone who joined the Livestream! For those of you who missed out on attending it live, visit the links below;  

🎥 Watch the [RSK Community Call August 2021](https://youtu.be/lZ0Y4VHvR4Q) on Youtube (Replay).
🗣️ Propose your own [RSKIPs](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs)
🔗 Join the [RSK Research & Innovation Forum](https://research.rsk.dev)
🗣️ [Suggest RSKIPs to discuss](https://research.rsk.dev/t/community-call-july-august-2021/204/2) in the next community call
🔗Join our [Open Slack Community](https://developers.rsk.co/slack/) and ask your questions in #research-and-innovation

The speakers on this call were:

-   John Light
-   Jose Dahlquist
-   Sergio Demian Lerner
-   Brendan Graetz

In this call, we discussed:

-   [The recent Iris release](https://github.com/rsksmart/rskj/releases/tag/IRIS-3.0.0)
-   [Expanding the emergency multisig (RSKIP 268)](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/pull/268/files)
-   [Emergency time-locks refresh (RSKIP 207)](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/rskip207/IPs/RSKIP207.md)
-   [Simplified emergency time-locks refresh (RSKIP 264)](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/master/IPs/RSKIP264.md)
-   [Bridge UTXOs selection, consolidation and batching (RSKIP 265)](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/master/IPs/RSKIP265.md)
-   [User-triggered peg-out transaction fee-bumping (RSKIP 241)](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/master/IPs/RSKIP241.md)
    
### The Iris v3.0.0 Release

RSK is happy to announce that the RSK Iris 5th network upgrade was successfully activated at block #3,614,800 on 19th August 2021! Read about the benefits this milestone upgrade brings to the ecosystem in this article: [Iris v3.0.0: What You Need To Know About RSK’s Upcoming Network Upgrade](https://blog.rsk.co/noticia/iris-v3-0-0-is-here-what-you-need-to-know-about-rsk-upcoming-network-upgrade/) and also check out [the previous community call](https://youtu.be/H15kZD15oSg) which focused on RSKIPs that were included in Iris.

### Expanding The Emergency Multisig (RSKIP-268)

John Light from [Sovryn](https://www.sovryn.app/) talked about modifying and expanding the Iris multisig from a 3-of-4 to a 7-of-12 multisig in line with the 7-of-12 PowHSM nodes required to operate the Powpeg Schnorr key aggregation to reduce the size of the emergency multisig transactions. He talked about enabling the current PowHSM nodes to be able to make taproot style transactions.

See related links:

-   [RSKIP-268](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/pull/268/files)
-   [RSKIP-268 discussion](https://research.rsk.dev/t/rskip-x-expanding-the-emergency-multisig/218)
    
### Emergency Time Locks Refresh (RSKIP-207)

Jose Dahlquist talked about improving the time-locked emergency multisig of RSKIP-201. Prior to this time, the Powpeg unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) are periodically spent in order to prevent the time-lock expiration, with the recent upgrade to the network, the new mechanism for the Bridge to command this time-lock refresh efficiently. 

See related links:

-   [RSKIP-207](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/rskip207/IPs/RSKIP207.md)
-   [RSKIP-207 discussion](https://research.rsk.dev/t/rskip-207-emergency-time-locks-refresh/215)

### Simplified Emergency Time-locks Refresh (RSKIP-264)

Jose also talked about simplifying RSKIP207 and prioritising UTXO consolidation. The aim of this RSKIP is the same as 207, but for 264 to be implementable, a consolidation of UTXOs should happen. If RSKIP-264 is activated, then the priority queue introduced in RSKIP-207 is not needed, and therefore RSKIP-264 should replace it.

See related links:

-   [RSKIP-264](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/master/IPs/RSKIP264.md)  
-   [RSKIP-264 discussion](https://research.rsk.dev/t/rskip-264-simplified-emergency-time-locks-refresh/223)
    
### Bridge UTXOs Selection, Consolidation and Batching (RSKIP-265)

Sergio Demian Lerner talked about preventing the proliferation and fragmentation of UTXOs, consolidating the peg-ins into a small set when the number of UTXOs grows over a threshold concurrent with a method of peg-out output batching, this solves the problem of variable peg-out fees and reduces the effectiveness of some DoS attacks.

![Bridge UTXOs](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lpdf9drn5ycr3quykj6t.png)

He highlighted the problems of the current UTXO management in RSK, these include;

UTXO denial of service, UTXO proliferation, UTXO fragmentation, UTXO uneven amount distribution, UTXO size shrink, peg-out cost, unfunded UTXO management, peg-out transactions fee bumping, etc. 

#### Some problems addressed by RSKIP-265; 

-   DOS attacks targeting the bridge

-   High peg out costs
-   UTXO proliferation and shrinkage
-   UTXO fragmentation, uneven amount distribution & UTXO refresh
-   Large variance in peg-out costs
-   Unfunded UTXO management
    
#### What RSKIP 265 does not solve;

-   Fee bumping

See related links:

-   [RSKIP-265](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/master/IPs/RSKIP265.md)
-   [RSKIP-265 discussion](https://research.rsk.dev/t/rskip-265-bridge-utxos-selection-consolidation-and-batching/219)
 
### User-triggered peg-out transaction fee-bumping (RSKIP-241)

Sergio talked about adding several methods to the bridge contract, allowing previously signed transactions to be rebuilt with higher Bitcoin transaction fees, and also allowing these transactions to be re-signed by the pegnatories.

![Manual Fee Bumping](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/42ujh65vco0b8uvsyf6s.png)

##### See related links:

-   [RSKIP-241](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs/blob/master/IPs/RSKIP265.md) 
-   [RSKIP-241 discussion](https://research.rsk.dev/t/rskip-265-bridge-utxos-selection-consolidation-and-batching/219) 
   
## Decisions

Read about the decisions made during the call on the [RSK Developers Portal](https://developers.rsk.co/community-calls/2021-08/#decisions)
    
## Summary

For more details on these, please watch the [recording on Youtube.](https://youtu.be/lZ0Y4VHvR4Q)

Want to champion an RSKIP? Missed the previous RSK Community Call? Watch the [recording on Youtube](https://youtu.be/H15kZD15oSg). Also, leave a comment on [this thread for the next community call](https://research.rsk.dev/t/community-call-september-october-2021/220?u=bguiz)!

Thanks for reading!

## Resources

-   [RSK Community Call,May, 2021](https://youtu.be/Cl1NWsJrFmI)
-   [RSK Community Call, July, 2021](https://youtu.be/H15kZD15oSg)
-   [RSK Community Call, August 2021](https://developers.rsk.co/community-calls/2021-08/)
-   [Discussion for next RSK Community Call](https://research.rsk.dev/t/community-call-september-october-2021/220?u=bguiz)
-   [RSK Improvement Proposals Repository](https://github.com/rsksmart/RSKIPs) 
-   [RSK Discourse Forum](https://research.rsk.dev/)
-   [RSK Developer Portal](https://developers.rsk.co)
-   [RSK Community Slack](https://developers.rsk.co)