Author: Peter Todd 2013-07-15 20:29:09
Published on: 2013-07-15T20:29:09+00:00
In an email exchange from 2013, Jorge Timón discusses various topics related to Bitcoin mining. He argues that one-way sacrifice (BTC to Zerocoin) is not controversial because there are no modifications needed for Bitcoin and preventing it is impossible. However, sacrificing something outside of Bitcoin's chain and new BTC appearing is the issue. Timón does not propose this solution and instead focuses on merged mining. While "merged attacking" the other chain is free, it is still more profitable to follow the rules and mine the other coin. The extra costs of validating something else are so little compared to chance-hashing that miners not merged mining Namecoin right now are just stupid. Timón assumes that value is the same for everyone, but this is not true. Miners in a jurisdiction where Zerocoin is banned, and the blocks they mine are public, will have zero value. It could also be easy for local authorities to ask miners to merge mine Zerocoin blocks to attack the chain since it does not cost them anything. They may even choose to do so to preserve the value of the coins they can mine legally. Altcoins are competition, and some miners may not want to engage in honest merge-mining.Proof-of-sacrifice can be done in a way that is opaque to the master blockchain by creating txouts that look no different from any other txout. This strategy could combat censorship of sacrifice-based chains. Timón also comments on Prime Proof of Work, stating that it is interesting only because it is moving towards SCIP-based mining. SCIP-based merged mining would be beneficial, as it would end all arguments about mining being wasteful. However, SCIP is currently a dream, and it is uncertain how the technology will shake out in the future.
Updated on: 2023-06-06T19:50:34.307297+00:00