Author: Luke Dashjr 2021-05-17 02:58:12
Published on: 2021-05-17T02:58:12+00:00
In a mailing list discussion on bitcoin-dev, Michael Fuhrmann asked why miners need to mine the 9 minutes after the last block was found if Bitcoin should create blocks every 10 minutes. The reason is that it increases security and is unavoidable. The problem with this approach is how to prevent pre-mining in the 9-minute time window, which is not possible. Several ideas were proposed for discussion, including a global network timer sending a salted hash time code after 9 minutes, but this would require PoW as the global network timer. Another suggestion is to give jobs before 9 minutes higher difficulty, making it more efficient to wait than pay high bills. However, there is no timestamp at this stage of consensus. Karl suggested implementing the clock on a peer network level by requiring inclusion of a transaction that was broadcast after a 9-minute delay, but this requires a centralized authority. Anton Ragin raised concerns about whether it is technically possible to power down mining rigs during the cool-down period and that data centers charge per unit of installed electricity consumption, encouraging miners to draw power when idling. Finally, Anton proposed encouraging users to allow only "green miners" to process their transactions. This could be achieved by certifying green miners and giving them cryptographic certificates of conformity, allowing users to encrypt their transactions so that only green miners could decrypt and process them. However, this proposal risks centralization and undermines the use of PoW.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T21:52:20.604225+00:00