Author: email at yancy.lol 2021-03-13 08:13:25
Published on: 2021-03-13T08:13:25+00:00
In an email thread on the bitcoin-dev mailing list, Lonero Foundation submitted a BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) for a hard fork of Bitcoin's cryptography and hashing algorithm. The proposal aims to expand proof-of-work rather than replace or create an alternative. Lonero Foundation received criticism for making obvious mistakes in the proposal and conflating secp256k1 with sha256. One email from Yancy even suggested that Lonero Foundation might be an algo. Lonero Foundation emphasized that the proposal is a draft and asked for constructive feedback rather than insults. They also expressed willingness to develop proofs for the different cryptographic elements proposed in the BIP and provide preprints explaining the algorithmic structure. The proposal was further discussed regarding the technical merit and feasibility of implementing it. Erik Aronesty suggested proof-of-burn as a nice alternative to proof-of-work. Keagan McClelland raised concerns about the potential invalidation of mining entities' capital expenditure and disincentivization of future capital expenditure into mining hardware if a hard fork in the hashing algorithm is proposed. Keagan also argued that "useless" work is critical for the security model of Bitcoin, and any change in the POW algorithm could make the network worse off. Lonero Foundation defended the proposal, arguing that the current hashing algorithm needs updating regardless, and a cryptography upgrade like this is beneficial for preventing the possibility of Bitcoin being entirely broken in the future. Lonero Foundation also addressed the disenfranchisement point, saying that a large portion of BTC is already mined through AWS servers and non-asic specific hardware, and a hybrid proof would benefit them without disenfranchising currently optimized mining entities.The email thread discusses the proposal of a better cryptography layer for Bitcoin network to enhance hashing for validation. The author, Andrew, suggests using Media Wiki format on GitHub to attach the proposal document. The discussion also touches upon the argument that nothing is cheaper than Proof of Work and how negative externalities associated with energy expenditure will go away soon due to the move to renewables.Additionally, the email mentions the vulnerability of BTC network to problems like NP-Completeness or Halting in the future. The author believes that upgrading the hashing algorithm and cryptography warrants some discussion, especially since bigger block height has been proposed as hard forks. The proposal aims to tackle these issues and provide useful insight to the community.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T19:04:51.145413+00:00