Author: Adam Back 2015-08-07 22:53:43
Published on: 2015-08-07T22:53:43+00:00
In an email sent on August 7, 2015, Thomas Zander via bitcoin-dev explained that the need for an individual to run a node is different from the need for nodes to exist. He argued that miners, not nodes, are essential to Bitcoin's security because some economic interest must be validating their receipt of coins against a full node they run. Many power users run full nodes themselves for added assurance when checking their coin receipts. Even if one is willing to trust others with their money, trusting miners or random full nodes could be unsafe without a reasonable portion of economic interest validating received coins. The reason for Bitcoin's existence is to avoid the need to trust others with money. Some believe that Bitcoin may not be interesting to those who fully trust others with their money. In response to a comment regarding incentives to keep the system secure, Pieter said that joint incentives should increase as the impact of the system increases. Adam deemed this opinion accurate and non-controversial.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T18:21:55.365516+00:00