Author: Filipe Farinha 2015-06-24 02:24:03
Published on: 2015-06-24T02:24:03+00:00
In a discussion on 24th June 2015, Mark Friedenbach pointed out that anyone could lie. This statement was agreed upon as true. The topic of discussion was the incentive for transaction broadcasting full-nodes to lie about the mempool size. It was questioned why the majority of transaction broadcasting full-nodes would have an incentive to do so. The concept of mempool refers to the collection of valid but unconfirmed transactions maintained by nodes. A full-node broadcasts the mempool size to its peers in order to estimate the network capacity and plan its own transactions accordingly. However, there is no apparent benefit for a full-node to lie about the size of its mempool. It is speculated that a small number of malicious nodes could potentially manipulate the mempool size to trick other nodes into thinking the network is congested or not congested enough. This could lead to improper fee estimation and transaction delays. However, it is unlikely that the majority of transaction broadcasting full-nodes would engage in such behavior as it goes against their own interests. Therefore, while it is true that anyone could lie, there seems to be no incentive for the majority of transaction broadcasting full-nodes to lie about the mempool size.
Updated on: 2023-06-10T00:45:25.812285+00:00