Author: Billy Tetrud 2022-07-08 05:03:40
Published on: 2022-07-08T05:03:40+00:00
The discussion thread on the Bitcoin-dev mailing list revolves around the issue of determining the appropriate level of security for Bitcoin, and how to pay for it. The finite supply of Bitcoin is the main argument for people investing in it, but the usefulness of Bitcoin depends on various forms of cryptographic security working together. There is zero feedback in the Bitcoin system between what might be considered the optimum amount of security and what actually exists. Moreover, there is no agreement on how much security would constitute such an optimum. The participants discussed several options to address these issues. One option is to use merged mining as a way to increase miner revenue, which could help ensure the appropriate level of security. Another option involves soft-forking a reduction in the current and near-future mining rewards, by locking the coins in a contract that deprives the miner of the full reward, and then using that contract to pay the rewards out far in the future should the security budget become insufficient. However, there is uncertainty over whether miners would agree to send some coinbase reward to the contract. Participants also discussed the potential for market forces to drive fees down too low, which could compromise the security of the network. A mechanism to smooth out the fee market, such as transaction joining, could potentially lower fees, but it does not appear to be a mechanism that could be used to target a particular security level. It remains unclear how much security is needed, or how to have a market mechanism to determine the optimum level of security. Finally, it was noted that it would take much more than a few million dollars to 51% attack bitcoin, as the blockchain security is based on the capital cost of buying up a massive amount of hashpower.
Updated on: 2023-06-15T21:20:31.863634+00:00