Author: Jorge Timón 2014-10-05 23:54:38
Published on: 2014-10-05T23:54:38+00:00
In an email exchange between Gregory Maxwell and other members, the idea of formalizing the proportion of "rational" vs "honest"/"altruistic" participants in the network was discussed. The discussion was centered around the impact of greedy mining behavior on the cryptocurrency network. It was suggested that if there is a significant amount of honest hashrate refusing to aid greedy behavior, then such a strategy becomes a loser even for purely greedy participants. Furthermore, it was noted that greedy miners might have an incentive to follow the longest chain rather than re-mine high tx blocks. A small miner would likely just mine on top of the longest chain if they knew the chances of re-mining a high tx were minimal or null. Therefore, the statement that "If everyone acts rationally in his own interest, then the best choice for the remaining miners is to try to mine a competing block at the same height n including the high-fee transaction, to collect the fee for themselves" may not necessarily be true. The email exchange also touched on the topic of income tradeoffs for different amounts of altruism and the convergence problems that may arise if altruistic participants attempt to punish forkers. Finally, the email ended with an unfinished sentence, leaving readers to speculate on what the rest of the message could have been.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T02:59:06.719076+00:00