Author: Peter Todd 2015-12-28 19:12:28
Published on: 2015-12-28T19:12:28+00:00
The email conversation discusses the issue of mining centralization in Bitcoin and how to make it more decentralized. One suggestion is to allow 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 and anyone could solo mine again. The next coinbase transaction could be split among the top 100 proofs of work. However, achieving this goal is fundamentally difficult due to the design of Bitcoin. The email also discusses fixing the selfish mining issue as a much larger and more dangerous potential problem. Selfish mining is defined in Emin Gün Sirer/Ittay Eyal's paper. Additionally, network propagation effects between large and small miners are concerning, as the profitability difference between small and large miners even without attacks going on is a hugely worrying problem. Eligius is mentioned as a pool that had problems with block withholding, but it is not the only pool to have had such issues.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T02:31:06.530681+00:00