Author: Anthony Towns 2017-05-29 11:19:14
Published on: 2017-05-29T11:19:14+00:00
In an email exchange on May 27, 2017, Eric Voskuil and Anthony Towns discussed the impact of patents on Bitcoin mining. They discussed hypothetical scenarios where there was no patent, and whether blocking ASICBoost would decrease everyone's hashrate by the same amount. Entry costs might be high without a patent, and it is difficult to analyze how that works out. Towns explained that the same formulation would not exist if there had been a patent on Bitcoin mining ASICs in general. For the formulation to apply, there would have to be a way to block ASIC use via consensus rules, in a way that doesn't just block ASICs completely, but just removes their advantage. Towns suggested that an unforeseen future patented mining optimization may exhibit the same characteristics, depending on whether the optimization's use can be detected or enforced via consensus rules. He also noted that a state licensing regime for miners, applied in the same scope as a patent but absent any patent, would not have a different effect from charging miners income tax. Any optional technology with license fees cannot be made available to all miners on equal terms, provided there is any way for it to be blocked via consensus mechanisms. The solution to this argument is to use discriminatory terms, either not offering the technology to everyone, or offering varying fees for miners with different hashrates. However, this makes decentralisation worse.
Updated on: 2023-05-20T02:34:44.151589+00:00