[Bitcoin-development] Bitcoin difficulty sanity check suggestion

Robin Ranjit Singh Chauhan robin at pathwayi.com
Mon Dec 23 20:22:49 UTC 2013


Mark, thank you for a very clear explanation of why this proposal would be
dangerous.

What I have noted in many discussions regarding blockchain security and
proof-or-work schemes, is there is a wide gulf between those few people who
can clearly reason about it, and those who have a lot trouble with it (I
mostly fall into the later camp).

I wonder if anyone can point to resources who can help "the rest of us"
reason clearly about these types of proposals, prior to bringing them to
this list or a senior dev.

Ideally it would illustrate various past proposals, explain why they would
and wouldnt work, and build up some fundamental concepts, like a "Newtons
laws of blockchain security" that would help us evaluate such ideas on our
own.

Blockchain stuff is often counterintuitive.



On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 7:22 PM, Mark Friedenbach <mark at monetize.io> wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Ryan, these sort of adjustments introduce security risks. If you were
> isolated from the main chain by a low-hashpower attacker, how would
> you know? They'd need just three days without you noticing that
> network block generation has stalled - maybe they wait for a long
> weekend - then after that the block rate is normal but completely
> controlled by the attacker (and isolated from mainnet).
>
> There are fast acting alternative difficulty adjustment algorithms
> being explored by some alts, such as the 9-block interval, 144-block
> window, Parks-McClellan FIR filter used by Freicoin to recover from
> just such a mining bubble. If it were to happen to bitcoin, there
> would be sophisticated alternative to turn to, and enough time to make
> the change.
>
> On 12/22/2013 07:10 PM, Ryan Carboni wrote:
> > I think Bitcoin should have a sanity check: after three days if
> > only four blocks have been mined, difficulty should be adjusted
> > downwards.
> >
> > This might become important in the near future. I project a
> > Bitcoin mining bubble.
> >
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.4.14 (GNU/Linux)
> Comment: GPGTools - http://gpgtools.org
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/
>
> iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJSt6yGAAoJEAdzVfsmodw4SegQAIJAWW0OgSjediSWq+EpkReS
> qMvC2Y9dmVHtowYLdJVcgwFWbpU8RhA6ApQ1Ks2XF4t0hFCObYDecG6Nl3OIaLfb
> snz24v8ymdxYXKNtzHHUP0VBgsaoRghIpkbf7JMUXC22sxPoPOXFt5RevLgJHrvc
> oGFZSIcEcGgwhwZ745CgFZLwaKuSmg5+wFFcrjIihlHKJOl47Z7rzeqnD6mf2Oi3
> hDpRuVbuhlGMliYcmhk1E6oV0in2R4Purw1WtoY8C9DxrSP2za7W1oeCkmlFfJZS
> to6SzRj7nEIl0LFaPGsIdBrRdDHfvu6eP2OecI+GNLEwLY6qE5v5fkh47mcDkrN0
> 02PmepoX5PRzBqp4sx8WaFKuRbmTRRr3E4i9PGoyzTckkZzq+zFmb1y5fwOy17hE
> C+nP+DyuaPzjypjdo6V+/oGzUKtuKPtqcB1vurbm+WBl5C1jWosAXv5pR87mdCUJ
> +0e14wPra5blV6yBVqX7yx+2heDGymPKfHJ8i76Dtix7XVOJWKVY4OpIxO7YrYv8
> IKcIswoKhZdSDOJLcjm4Qp4hrzgCHAHWx6vN71r5r2T6zaJTOvp98GS04Yy7VGAr
> j38hojcwvJC1ahER3LV/vC0cqO+fxrvY8Q9rW2cUxCnzxzjjG0+Z/gjW8uh73lXN
> DOTF7jpt0ZmCm7uhG9z7
> =5Q2H
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT
> organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance
> affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your
> Java,.NET, & PHP application. Start your 15-day FREE TRIAL of AppDynamics
> Pro!
> http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=84349831&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
> _______________________________________________
> Bitcoin-development mailing list
> Bitcoin-development at lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development
>



-- 
Robin R Chauhan
CEO, Pathway Intelligence Inc
robin at pathwayi.com
Office: 778-588-6217 Ext. 201
Cell: 604-865-0517
Fax: 778-588-1042
http://pathwayi.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This transmission (including any attachments) may contain confidential
information or constitute non-public information. Any use of this
information by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited.
If you have received this transmission in error, please immediately
reply to the sender and delete this information from your system.
Use, dissemination, distribution, or reproduction of this transmission
by unintended recipients is not authorized and may be unlawful.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/attachments/20131223/ad1dac6c/attachment.html>


More information about the bitcoin-dev mailing list