Author: Gregory Maxwell 2013-02-14 03:38:31
Published on: 2013-02-14T03:38:31+00:00
In an email exchange in 2013, Stephen Pair discussed the incentives for miners to distribute and hear about blocks widely and quickly in the Bitcoin network. He also referred to the fees associated with bandwidth and validation that a transaction requires, which can determine whether a relay node fetches and propagates transactions. However, another person in the conversation raised concerns about externalized costs of hundreds of thousands of other nodes that must validate blocks, many of which are not miners and do not have a way to monetize fees. The cost of validation and forwarding could end up being a barrier to entry, and selfish miners may eschew validation, potentially compromising the security of the system. Pair acknowledged the potential issues but believed that economics would ultimately dictate the outcome. The goal was for economics to align with securing the system.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T16:27:19.770244+00:00