Author: Gregory Maxwell 2014-11-28 12:03:52
Published on: 2014-11-28T12:03:52+00:00
In a discussion about making coins potentially less fungible, Flavien Charlon expressed concern that breaking existing invariants could lead to coins being non-reorg safe. However, the idea of coins being reorg safe was challenged as all it takes is a double spend for them to become invalid after a reorg. This means there are already less fungible coins, which is why 6 confirmations are recommended for important payments. It was noted that a double spend requires an active action and roughly 1% of blocks are lost to reorganizations by chance. Longer otherwise harmless reorgs, such as those experienced in the past, could forever destroy large chunks of coins if descendants had additional constraints on them. If reorganizations precluded the recovery of many transactions that were valid when placed earlier in the chain, substantial losses could occur.The recommendation of 6 confirmations is just a count, and not a detailed analysis of each coin received to determine its script conditions and vulnerability to irrecoverable loss. Layering violations and transaction validity can depend on arbitrary block data, leading to complications.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T19:32:55.033521+00:00