Author: Gregory Maxwell 2014-04-23 20:53:59
Published on: 2014-04-23T20:53:59+00:00
In an email exchange in April 2014, Adam Ritter proposed the idea that a faster blockchain could potentially solve the problem of needing the Bitcoin blockchain for transactions. However, it was noted that large scale consensus cannot provide instantly irreversible transactions directly. Increasing the block speed would not help past the point where time starts getting close to the network diameter. A consensus of a group of nodes cannot be determined until several times the light cone that includes all of them. Approaching this limit dilutes the power working on the consensus and could make life easier for a large attacker. It was suggested that other chains with different parameters could achieve a different tradeoff better suited to low value retail transactions, where a soft confirmation is desired quickly. The choice of tradeoffs could be very useful, and it may be possible to get close enough to what a centralized service can offer without invoking too much centralization. However, there is no silver bullet solution known at the time that can give something identical to what a centralized service can offer without at least a little bit of centralization.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T18:44:59.736924+00:00