Author: Melvin Carvalho 2013-06-10 12:30:02
Published on: 2013-06-10T12:30:02+00:00
The fundamental philosophy of Bitcoin being 'one CPU one vote' is a misconception, as stated by Pieter Wuille in an email from 2013. Bitcoin is a zero-trust system where rules are set in stone and every full node verifies all the rules and must independently come to the same result as everyone else. The only thing that is voted on is the order of valid and non-conflicting transactions, which is necessary since it includes delaying transactions. A majority of miners can enforce an additional rule about which transactions are considered valid, but the rules implemented in full nodes do not change unless the software is changed. Voting is easily gamed, and establishing methods of voting can lead to single points of failure. However, at some point, we have to look at the system from a higher level than just the technical part. Since there is always the possibility that everyone changes their software, and there is an exceedingly high incentive for consensus, proposed changes can become new adopted hard rules in the system. Bitcoin is a consensus system at the technical level, as well as a consensus of the people using it, and ultimately they decide the rules.If there's a bug, and everyone is unanimous that it's a bug, it can be fixed. However, if there's a controversial rule change, we should be extremely cautious and not do it unless there's a very good reason. Keeping to Satoshi's model as much as possible without introducing human factors unnecessarily is recommended.
Updated on: 2023-06-06T18:44:36.282368+00:00