Author: Eric Voskuil 2021-06-30 18:11:06
Published on: 2021-06-30T18:11:06+00:00
In an email exchange between Zac Greenwood and Eric Voskuil, the topic of whether a node enforces consensus rules in Bitcoin was discussed. Voskuil argued that a node (software) does not enforce anything and that it is up to economic nodes -people who refuse to accept invalid money- to enforce consensus rules. He also mentioned that non-economic nodes are well-established in the network and offer no resistance themselves. Greenwood disagreed, stating that nodes do enforce consensus rules and define what is Bitcoin. He argued that nodes disregard invalid transactions and blocks as if they never existed, making it impossible for any party to transact Bitcoin in a way that violates the set of rules enforced by the network of consensus-compatible nodes. The two continued to debate the issue, with Greenwood explaining that the network ignores non-economic nodes as if they never existed, and citing examples from the BCH split where people were setting up nodes on cloud services to boost numbers, which he believed were of no consequence.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T23:44:01.230216+00:00