Author: Adam Back 2015-11-05 23:03:32
Published on: 2015-11-05T23:03:32+00:00
The author suggests that it might be helpful to summarize the security assumptions and design requirements before having clear design discussions. The importance of economically dependent full nodes as an important part of Bitcoin's security model is discussed. Validators do not have orphan risk, but maliciously crafted blocks could erode security by knocking reasonable spec full nodes off the network on CPU or bandwidth grounds. It is important for bitcoin decentralization security that small miners not be significantly disadvantaged compared to large miners. A tradeoff exists between weak miner decentralization and good validator decentralization. Security considerations should focus on the pathological case rather than average or default behavior. A hierarchy of defenses is discussed, ranging from consensus rule enforced to meta-incentive. Best practices are suggested to maintain the health and security of the Bitcoin network, including keeping things simple and avoiding complex optimization problems. An incremental approach may be useful in simplifying and arriving at a consensus more quickly. While not everything may be fixable in one go, working incrementally is suggested to address issues.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T00:52:44.896500+00:00