Author: Jeff Garzik 2013-11-05 18:37:04
Published on: 2013-11-05T18:37:04+00:00
The email conversation between Alessandro Parisi and Jeff Garzik revolves around the issue of fixing bugs found in Bitcoin. Parisi is of the view that when bugs are found, they should be fixed as soon as possible, especially when it comes to sensitive software such as Bitcoin. On the other hand, Garzik disagrees and states that blindly applying standard logic to Bitcoin will quickly result in large problems.Garzik argues that Bitcoin is far more complex than standard IT security "fix ASAP" mantra because distributed consensus is a new field of computer science. Every fix has the chance of changing the game theory or economics of Bitcoin. Therefore, changes must be made after significant research, analysis, and testing. He compares Bitcoin to medical device or avionics software, stating that one cannot just change it at will.Garzik further points out that Bitcoin's core consensus protocol within mining is even more game-theory- and economically-critical to the core system. Changes thus have more impact, where any change potentially reduces Bitcoin's value to zero in the worst case. The solution presented has some obvious flaws that would make our current, working system more fragile and less secure.Hence, it is clear from the discussion that Jeff Garzik opposes the idea of fixing bugs ASAP without proper research, analysis, and testing. Blindly applying standard logic to Bitcoin can have significant consequences for its value and security. Instead, Bitcoin needs to be treated like medical device or avionics software, where changes must be made after careful consideration.
Updated on: 2023-06-07T19:24:21.001901+00:00