Author: Emin Gün Sirer 2015-12-28 19:30:14
Published on: 2015-12-28T19:30:14+00:00
In an email thread on the bitcoin-dev mailing list, Peter Todd and Emin Gün Sirer discuss the threshold for selfish mining to be a significant issue. While Todd argues that it is only a problem in scenarios where one malicious miner has over 30% hashing power, Sirer points out that selfish mining is a guaranteed win at 34%. He notes that the less consolidated and centralized other mining pools are, the less of a threat selfish mining is below 34%, while the more decentralized they are, the more likely it is to pay off at lower thresholds. However, Sirer believes that network propagation effects between large and small miners are far more concerning. Sirer references the Bitcoin-NG paper which introduced metrics for fairness, hash power efficiency, and consensus delay, moving concerns about these issues out of the realm of gut feelings and into science. Sirer also notes that there is a slight, quantifiable benefit to larger pools, emphasizing the need to be diligent about not letting pools get too big. The conversation then shifts to block withholding issues among mining pools. While Eligius is the only pool to have gone on record so far, Todd notes that it is not the only pool to have had problems with this issue. He speculates that the reason pools might not want to go public with this information is that it means they are less profitable than other pools. Sirer concludes by stating that Ittay's discovery is doing exactly the right thing, as the pool in question will need to be more careful when signing up new people to curb its otherwise steady march towards the 51% boundary.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T02:32:45.543190+00:00