Author: Peter Todd 2015-06-23 20:46:47
Published on: 2015-06-23T20:46:47+00:00
In an email exchange between Gavin Andresen and an unidentified person, the topic of centralisation in the Bitcoin network was discussed. Specifically, concerns were raised regarding the potential for centralisation as a result of bandwidth scaling not going according to plan, whether due to technological growth not keeping pace or political realities affecting deployment. Simulations by Pieter Wuille showed that miners with bad connectivity were negatively impacted by other miners creating larger blocks, while Gavin Andresen's equation-based analysis supported this argument. Propagation times are important enough to miners that they already mine on top of unverified headers from other miners to increase profitability, which is considered a grave threat to the security of the Bitcoin network. Block propagation improvements have already been implemented through Corallo's relay network and p2pool but require co-operation, which could fail in worst-case scenarios. The proposal needs to explicitly address what kind of resources are needed by miners for what kind of profitability, including the case where other miners are sabotaging their profitability.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T00:23:38.516414+00:00