Author: symphonicbtc 2023-08-19 23:11:22+00:00
Published on: 2023-08-19T23:11:22+00:00
Miners in the context are not always driven by immediate profit, but also consider their long-term prospects. Engaging in transaction censorship can potentially decrease the value of the coins they mine and even result in being "fired" by participants in Bitcoin. Currently, miners are only incentivized to perform surface-level censorship, such as excluding OFAC sanctioned transactions from their blocks. This is economically beneficial because it poses low risk to the ecosystem while providing legal advantages. However, if miners were to actively censor transactions by purposely orphaning blocks, it would be seen as a 51% attack and Bitcoin would respond accordingly.The possibility of such attacks already exists with cooperation between attackers and miners. The introduction of additional constructs and smart contracts would not further incentivize these attacks. It is important to exercise due diligence when considering consensus upgrades, but it is crucial to select an appropriate security model for implementation. Bitcoin does not require built-in mechanisms to defend against miner attacks. Proper models of miner incentives and the assurance that node-runners will appropriately respond to attacks are sufficient when contemplating covenant upgrades.
Updated on: 2023-08-22T01:54:24.280929+00:00