Author: ZmnSCPxj 2019-07-18 14:15:05
Published on: 2019-07-18T14:15:05+00:00
The author of the message clarifies that a single node can be isolated from the rest of the network and when it reconnects, it only has to follow the longest chain as always. Checking with a block explorer or a friend's node is only required under the extreme situation of being under a 51% attack. Under proof-of-work, 51% attacks are a lot less feasible than under proof-of-stake. The primary source of energy on Earth is the formation of the solar system and while there is significant variance in energy availability, it is still reasonably spread out. A 51% attack under proof-of-work is only possible if some singular entity had physical control of almost 50% of the globe, which is not possible in latest human political maps. Secondly, change of hashing algorithm is pointless in the highly unlikely case of a 51% attack because what matters is control of energy sources. Removing the chain tip puts the transactions back in the mempool before we start following the longer chain. All transactions of one day (or more) could be erased forever in PoW if the network or internet itself is splitted more than N blocks. However, this is better than in PoS where removing all transactions prevents spending of all funds and crashes the value of the staked funds. Hard forks are very difficult to coordinate as the user set increases in size. Giving more staking weight to coins together in a single address than splitted coins speeds up the dominance of large stakers over the coin. Ethereum itself is going to PoS next year, but with a different implementation.
Updated on: 2023-06-13T20:03:37.326024+00:00