Author: Jameson Lopp 2017-06-14 18:55:04
Published on: 2017-06-14T18:55:04+00:00
In an email conversation between Zheming Lin and Jameson Lopp, they discussed the role of users in the Bitcoin ecosystem and whether or not they truly have a choice. Lin argued that users always have a choice and can abandon nodes if they wish, but passive users need to know there is a choice and pick one. Lin also suggested that his proposed BIP could be applied to almost any upgrade, including Segwit, Segwit2x, 2m, ec, and 8m. Lopp clarified that Bitcoin is not a democracy and that the term "voting" may lead to a misunderstanding of how consensus forms. Rather than voting, miners signal readiness to enforce new rules once code has been deployed. If miners are too "passive or lazy" or wish to veto the activation of new rules, users may choose to circumvent said veto by refusing to accept blocks that do not show readiness for enforcing the new rules. Regarding user consensus, Lopp stated that users can voice their opinion on any number of communication platforms, but measuring meatspace consensus is tricky and every proposal for doing so has been arguably flawed. Every user who runs a fully validating node is free to enforce the rules with which they agree, regardless of what rules other entities are enforcing.Lin argued that wallet users currently must choose whether or not to follow the 51% majority of miners. If they don't trust the majority miners, they can fork away and leave; if they do trust them, they can stay and follow the vote for upcoming protocol upgrades. The question then becomes whether or not the Bitcoin developers, users, holders, service providers, and even miners still have faith in the majority of miners as designed in the white paper. Lopp clarified that the white paper refers to majority hashpower needing to be honest with regard to determining the correct chain within the context of many possible valid chain forks, but it is not referring to using hashpower to determine the correct chain amongst an infinitely variable number of currently invalid chain forks. Participants in the Bitcoin ecosystem should not have faith in miners or any other entity when it comes to choosing the consensus rules they wish to enforce.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T02:32:16.652691+00:00