Author: Devrandom 2017-11-01 05:48:27
Published on: 2017-11-01T05:48:27+00:00
The author presents a draft proposing the soft-fork introduction of a new Proof of Work (POW) to mitigate mining centralization pressures and reduce the impact of mining power fluctuations. The proposed POW introduces an intermediary confirmation point, alternating between normal blocks and auxiliary POW blocks with difficulty adjustments remaining independent for the two POWs. The heaviest chain rule changes from sum of `difficulty` to sum of mainDifficulty ^ x * auxDifficulty ^ y. The author acknowledges that the choice of a suitable POW will require deep analysis due to potential pitfalls such as botnet mining, unexpected/covert optimizations, and POWs that appear ASIC resistant but are not. Furthermore, the author discusses rewards for aux POW miners, wasted bandwidth, and possible incentives for detrimental behavior patterns. The author credits Bram Cohen for similar ideas presented in March 2017.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T21:55:17.302792+00:00