Author: Sergio Demian Lerner 2017-05-08 22:15:48
Published on: 2017-05-08T22:15:48+00:00
The discussion on the bitcoin-dev mailing list focuses on the possibility of proving that a node is holding its own copy of the blockchain, not shared with other nodes. Sergio Demian Lerner proposes a solution called Proof-of-Unique-Blockchain-Storage (PoUBS) to encourage full nodes to store the blockchain. However, Natanael argues that it is not possible to do this securely. The whole blockchain is both public and static, while any proof of independence needs to rely on unique capabilities per node. Even challenge-response protocols cannot stop someone from putting multiple seemingly independent nodes in front of the same backend with one single copy of the blockchain. The best that can be done is to force somebody to hold multiple copies locally on multiple hardware units. Any attempt at forcing the full copy of the blockchain to be in memory close to the CPU will either rule out most nodes from passing or will be cheatable.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T00:35:31.822520+00:00