Author: Christian Decker 2011-11-23 14:38:55
Published on: 2011-11-23T14:38:55+00:00
The discussion on the Bitcoin-development mailing list revolves around the idea of a fixed difficulty in block generation versus synchronized time windows. The current block generation with a fixed difficulty was chosen because it is clear when to adjust and to what target difficulty it has to be adjusted. However, Chris suggests an alternative approach: pick any old block, create a chain fork by creating simpler blocks on top of your chosen one, and wait for an incredibly hard block that makes your forked chain the hardest one in the network, making all your blocks valid and forcing people to switch to your forked chain. If this is possible, it would allow the revocation of all transactions and claim all the mined coins since the fork. Andy Parkins raises objections to this approach, stating that synchronization is not possible in distributed systems, even the smallest drift would allow for forks in the chain all over the place, and the delay in propagation will also cause forks. He suggests viewing block difficulty as a measure of time, not time itself, and choosing the most difficult head to start generating from. Resolving forks is easy: 50 coins every ten minutes only, and the most difficult chain wins. There are certainly areas he hasn't thought about, but he likes the idea of there being no target difficulty, and instead the blocks are issued at a fixed ten-minute rate (or rather the rewards are).
Updated on: 2023-06-04T21:30:52.473314+00:00