What are some valid ways to obfuscate the scriptPubKey?

Question

Is it possible to hide the balance of an address from standard clients who may be watching blockchain?

I'm thinking about using script to modify the the key that is to be verified, but am having trouble concocting such a script.

Is there any prior work that does obfuscate the RIPE160 address?

Why? I don't see why this is preferable to simply not reusing addresses. — Tim S., Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 19:20
It's a thought experiment, perhaps it's useful to someone. Perhaps not. — makerofthings7, Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 19:23

uminatsu · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-13 20:46:32Z

1

You can insert two OP_HASH160 after the OP_DUP and then push the hash of your pubKeyHash. Nobody can tell the recipient address this way.

Example:

OP_DUP OP_HASH160 OP_HASH160 double_double_hash OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CHECKSIG

Where

double_double_hash = RIPEMD160(SHA256(RIPEMD160(SHA256(pubKey))))

answered Mar 13, 2014 at 20:25

uminatsu

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Of course, this only works once. When you use the same trick to send more coins to the same address, it will be obvious that they are going to the same place.
– Nate Eldredge
Commented Mar 14, 2014 at 1:26
You can always use fancier opcodes, for example add a random constant and an 'OP_ADD' between two OP_HASH160 opcodes. Of cource it is still very obvious that nobody else is using such crazy scripts.
– uminatsu
Commented Mar 14, 2014 at 2:47

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