Author: Eric Voskuil 2018-01-30 03:52:21
Published on: 2018-01-30T03:52:21+00:00
In an email exchange, Gregory Maxwell and Eric Voskuil discussed the concept of block space ownership in Bitcoin. Voskuil argued that miners have the right to sell or not sell block space since it belongs to them. However, Maxwell pointed out that as users of Bitcoin, they collectively pay miners around $130k USD per block in the form of inflation for the job of complying with the Bitcoin protocol. While there is subsidy involved, miners still accept a net loss by purchasing space for themselves if they do not accept the highest fee transactions. Maxwell also dispelled the idea of "retaliation" against miners who purchase block space, stating that it is not possible or desirable to detect the source of transactions in a system without identity. He further explained that reducing returns to miners would simply result in a reduction of hash power and not a decrease in transaction costs.
Updated on: 2023-06-13T00:16:11.318433+00:00