Homework on UTXO vs Account Model

Ethereum 101
#1965
  1. less amount of data by just updating the balances on each account = more agility in the communication
    2.It is less private. Each transaction just updates the sender and receiver account. It is easy to see who sent money where. The UTXO model is harder to follow because you are constantly sending your entire balance to receivers and then the remaining balance back to yourself, with ETH it just sends the money from one account to another without the need to send the remaining balance back to yourself making it more easily trackable. (quoted Jugging_Crypto on Oct 19)
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#1966

  1. The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?
    Less data for block, Easier traceability

  2. How is the account model not as great as the UTXO model for privacy?
    UTXO can be funds sent back to you as change and Ethereum you get a more transparent method where you send funds you can see where they go.

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#1967
  1. TX become cheaper bcz less data needs to be sent
  2. in eth everything is visible where in btc 1 tx can hold several adresses which cant be destinguished from the outside
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#1968

  1. The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?
    It means that transactions take up less space in the blocks that are mined, leaving more room for smart contracts.

  2. How is the account model not as great as the UTXO model for privacy?
    With UTXO’s there a usually multiple inputs and outputs so it is near impossible to track how much was paid to a different account or accounts and how much was left as a UTXO for the individual to use in a future transaction. With the account model there no UTXO’s so it makes it clear how much of a currency is being sent to another account.

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#1969

Less block space reduces the resources required for maintaining the blockchain.

The account model does not allow you to mask your identity in multiple outputs within the same TX the way you can in the UTXO model.

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#1970
  • The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?

If more transactions can be stored per block, then this create efficiency within the blockchain, ultimately leading to faster processing times on each transaction.

  • How is the account model not as great as the UTXO model for privacy?

The account models allows for individual transactions to be quantified precisely and it provides visibility between wallet addresses involved in the transaction. Therefore, you can tell with certainty which address the ETH went to, and be certain of the exact amount of ETH that was received.

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#1971

  1. Less space means more transactions per block which can be faster, cheaper and more efficient than a UTXO model.

  2. With the account model you can track the amount and destination of all transactions. The UTXO model can have several outputs in one transaction, including returning back to the owner so can be harder to track and identify who they belong to.

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#1972
  1. The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?

Transactions in the UTXO model are larger in size and place more burden on the user and their wallet. The UTXO model is a verification model , whereas the account model is a computational model . Account -based systems offer storage benefits because the account’s state and transactions are smaller.

The account model has more efficient memory usage. Storing a single account balance saves memory compared to storing several UTXOs that comprise a user’s total balance. Transactions in the account model are also smaller in size because they only specify the sender, receiver, the transfer amount, and a single digital signature. Additionally, just by doing away with change outputs, a lot of data can be saved in the account model.

On a conceptual level, this is intuitive. Since a UTXO transaction specifies the state after the transition (the newly generated transaction outputs), it needs to include more data than an account transaction. It may also consume several UTXOs as inputs, whereas the account transaction only specifies which account balance to deduct an amount from. To give you an idea, Ethereum’s account model takes about 100 bytes, whereas a UTXO transaction in Horizen takes about 200-300 bytes.

This also means that it’s faster to get new nodes online in a system running the account model because less data is needed to get them in synch. The number of accounts will generally be much smaller than the total UTXO set in a comparably sized system. (https://academy.horizen.io/technology/expert/utxo-vs-account-model/)

  1. How is the account model not as great as the UTXO model for privacy?

When it comes to privacy, there are merits to both the UTXO and the account model. The UTXO model makes it harder to link transactions, whereas the account model provides better fungibility.

When change addresses are consequently used in the UTXO model, it makes tracking the ownership of coins harder compared to the account model. A newly generated address doesn’t have a known owner and requires advanced chain analysis to be linked to a single user. The account model implicitly encourages address reusage and hence makes creating a transaction history for a single user easier.

With regard to fungibility, the account model offers better privacy. There is complete transparency of UTXO movements (read assets) in the UTXO model when no privacy-preserving techniques are applied. However, the account model comes with a built-in “coin mixer” of sorts. When an account is funded with several transactions, the result is a single balance. When a payment from this account is made, an observer cannot determine which of the incoming coins is being spent. Consider the example of the account model above where Alice sends 8 ZEN to Bob, and his balance is updated to 9 ZEN. When Bob subsequently spends 1 ZEN, nobody can determine if the single ZEN stems from Alice or a different source. This is a very simplified view. Even when assets cannot reliably be assigned to a funding transaction, analytic tools can determine if coins are tainted, but the general idea remains.

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#1973

1. The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?

  • With no UTXOs, transactions take less space, there for more of them can be included in a block.

2. How is the account model not as great as the UTXO model for privacy?

  • With UTXOs you can follow the origin of your BTC, while in ETH, your balance only gets updated.
  • Anyone, looking at the blockchain from the outside can see the exact sum of sent ETH and see the address that it has been sent to.
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#1974

  1. The account model does not require as much space. This is helpful because it frees up more space in the blockchain for more transactions.

  2. The account model is less private because transaction information can be tracked and who they belong to.

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#1975
  1. less space on blockchain which allows for faster easier processing.
  2. because in account model each transaction is traceable from and to senders, and no user can send currency to his address as well as a senders address in the same transaction anonymously
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#1976

  1. It allows more transaction to be processed in a block and therefore, makes transaction speed faster.

  2. You can track the address of payment. In the UTXO model, one of the payment addresses can be your own.

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#1977
  1. The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?

This simpler account model requires less block space and transactions can occur faster.

  1. How is the account model not as great as the UTXO model for privacy?

On the account model, since it entails updating account balances, it is always clear to whom money is being sent and how much. There is no notion of also sending money back to oneself, to mask to whom money is being sent.

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#1978
  1. The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?

Blocks can store more transactions. This increases the the scalability of the blockchain

  1. How is the account model not as great as the UTXO model for privacy?

With UTXO you cannot see if which transaction you sent to someone else and back to yourself.

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#1979
  1. Blocks can include more txs, which crucial for ethereum
  2. The account model is not as good as the UTXO model in terms of privacy as in bitcoin as you can’t really send funds to yourself, funds are sent from point A to B which is easier to follow but less private.so basically in bitcoin it is more difficult to see which which of the outputs are to new people and which is yourself making it, in theory, more private.
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#1980
  1. lower data usage means greater scalability and processing efficiencies.
  2. Ethereum is -x amount +x amount update from wallet A to Wallet B. UTXO’s can have multiple outputs to receiving wallets including the senders.
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#1981

  1. The Account model is a benefit because there is more space in the block for other transactions and smart contract code. The UTXO model limits the amount of code that can be fit in each block and also incorporates an efficient number of transactions. The account model that Ethereum uses allows for more transactions to fit per block and lengthier smart contracts that might include many different states with different conditions.

  2. The Account model is not as good for keeping transactions secure because it’s simply a transfer from one account to another. Anyone can view the amounts and destinations for all transactions fairly easily. If someone learns who owns a particular address they could trace all other transactions connected to that address back to them. The UTXO model on the other hand can combine transactions so that one transaction sends funds to multiple addresses at the same time. For example, you could send funds to your friend, your business partner, or vendor, and your spouse all at the same time with the UTXO model. Someone viewing the transaction on the blockchain can see that 4 transactions were outputted, or spent, but it’s harder to determine if the recipients are different people, the same person with different addresses, yourself, or any combination of these.

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#1982

  1. Transactions can be faster since there is less information to broadcast. The chain does not take up as much space.

  2. With UTXOs a spectator does not know for sure who is the receiver of the funds, but with account model it is not as anonymous. When an Ethereum account receives funds we can watch al funds and tokens tied to that Etereum account.

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#1983

1.The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?

  • It is a benefit because you can store more information in said block. In regards to bitcoin the
    UTXO’s take up more space than just the number accounting does on ethereum.
  1. The account model doesn’t require much space as the UTXO model, why is that a benefit?
  • In the UTXO model you can send funds to yourself or multiple addresses and can have multiple outputs. In the account model you can see can see more easily which accounts are sending to each other. Also it would be in numbers that are simpler and easier to read than UTXO’s to most people.
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#1984

1- The less space required by the account model is a benefit because more transaction can be recorded with each block.

2- The account model is not as great as UTXO for privacy because there is just one output for each transactions- meaning that is is easy for anyone to see the recipient address of each transaction. The ability to have multiple recipients with UTXO model adds a layer of transaction anonymity.

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