Author: Bram Cohen 2017-03-20 17:49:59
Published on: 2017-03-20T17:49:59+00:00
The state of miner centralization in Bitcoin has become a concern for some, as it poses a risk to the security of the network. One suggestion is to implement a Malicious Miner Reactive Proof of Work Additions (MR POWA) via a hard fork activated in response to a malicious attempt by a hashpower majority to introduce a contentious hard fork. Rather than eliminating SHA256, multiple new proofs of work could be introduced, such as Scrypt, Ethash and Equihash, to diversify hardware and make it more difficult for any one entity to exert influence over a substantial portion of SHA256 hardware. The initial difficulty of each new proof of work would be an estimated portion of existing infrastructure. Ideally, MR POWA would serve as a deterrent and never activate, but if consensus were to form around a hard fork in the future, nodes would be able to upgrade and MR POWA, while automatically activating on non-upgraded nodes, would be of no economic significance: a vestigial chain immediately abandoned with no miner incentive.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T22:15:47.618556+00:00