Author: Eric Voskuil 2015-11-07 00:44:48
Published on: 2015-11-07T00:44:48+00:00
In a discussion thread on Bitcoin-dev, Chris Priest and Adam Back disagree with Erik Voskuil's claim that widespread use of APIs as the only means of interfacing with the blockchain reduces network security because it erodes consensus rule validation security. Priest argues that the security of the system is independent of the ratio between full nodes and lightweight nodes, while Back notes that power users and businesses using APIs instead of running a full node should be clear about what security they are delegating to a third party, and whether they have a reason to trust the governance and security competence of the third party. However, Voskuil argues that centralized Bitcoin APIs contribute to reducing network security for everyone over time as developers tend to settle on a couple of API providers for a given problem and all applications and users of them reduce to a single validator.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T00:53:21.124920+00:00