Author: Gregory Maxwell 2015-05-27 22:22:48
Published on: 2015-05-27T22:22:48+00:00
Mike Hearn, a developer who was involved in the creation of Bitcoin, wrote an article explaining the concept of hashing assurance contracts. He notes that prior proposals for assurance contracts paid miners equally regardless of whether their actions supported or went against the interests of the contract holder. Hearn argues that transaction fees, which already exist in Bitcoin, serve as a mechanism for paying for security and can solve the common action problem of people waiting for others to pay for security. He questions the workability of assurance contracts, particularly for ongoing costs like security. Hearn also points out that many crowdfunding platforms do not use binary contracts for ongoing costs. He reminds readers that mining per-contract poses an existential risk to Bitcoin, which has been gaining more attention recently.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T20:26:19.395560+00:00