Author: Jorge Timón 2021-05-25 08:35:56
Published on: 2021-05-25T08:35:56+00:00
In a discussion on the bitcoin-dev mailing list, participants explored the idea that in perfect competition, mining profits tend to zero. This means that mining costs tend to equal the reward. To reduce mining costs, it was suggested that reducing the subsidy could be an option. However, convincing users and developers to support such a move may prove difficult due to the perception that it is "attacking miners." Some developers also misunderstand who decides consensus rules, leading them to believe that miners hold veto power over proposals. Despite this, there are those who would be in favor of a softfork to reduce the subsidy.In another discussion on the same forum, participants debated the level of security that Bitcoin needs and its current security status. The potential cost of an attack was estimated to range from $1.5 billion at the lower end to $720 billion from the Chinese government at the upper end. However, these estimates were acknowledged to be speculative, with some suggesting they could be an order of magnitude too low or too high. Before making any decisions about reducing security to save costs, more accurate estimates of the necessary security levels and available attack budgets are needed. Suggestions for alternative approaches to incentivizing good behavior in the mining industry were also discussed. These included proof of environmental kindness and coding the chain to pay people to investigate and prove miners' business practices. The discussion in the bitcoin-dev mailing list also revolved around the consequences of a polluting entity whose behavior needs to be enforced. One solution proposed is that other entities in the locality can use force to require the polluting entity to clean up or suffer significant consequences. However, enforcing this may be difficult due to various political constructions. The miners could be in cahoots with the local government to an extent that the local government would willingly hurt other local entities in the vicinity of the polluting entity. As Bitcoin grows, people may need to be willing to enforce behavior themselves if they ask some locality to enforce it, too, or they might outcompete the locality. Overall, the discussions highlighted potential challenges in enforcing environmental regulations in the context of Bitcoin mining. More accurate estimates of necessary security levels and available attack budgets are also needed before making decisions about reducing security to save costs. Alternative approaches to incentivizing good behavior in the mining industry were suggested as well.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T22:07:57.129914+00:00