Author: Multipool Admin 2015-12-26 08:12:13
Published on: 2015-12-26T08:12:13+00:00
The discussion among members of the bitcoin-dev mailing list revolves around fixing the problem of block withholding attacks and making mining more decentralized. It is suggested that instead of attempting to fix the issue, mining should be made more decentralized in general. One idea proposed is allowing anyone to submit proofs of work to Bitcoind that are some fraction of the network difficulty and receive payment for them if they're valid. This would encourage the proliferation of full nodes since anyone could solo mine again, and the next coinbase transaction could be split among the top 100 proofs of work. Eligius already does their miner payouts in this manner. Additionally, it is suggested that fixing the selfish mining issue should be prioritized as it presents a larger and more dangerous potential issue. However, there is no known way for pools, especially ones that allow anonymous hashers, to effectively prevent block withholding attacks without changing the Bitcoin protocol. The discussion also touches on whether Eligius suffered from a block withholding attack or was simply the victim of a miner with faulty hardware.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T02:27:56.282423+00:00