📅 Original date posted:2017-11-06
📝 Original message:On Wed, Nov 01, 2017 at 05:48:27AM +0000, Devrandom via bitcoin-dev wrote:
Some quick thoughts...
> Hi all,
>
> Feedback is welcome on the draft below. In particular, I want to see if
> there is interest in further development of the idea and also interested in
> any attack vectors or undesirable dynamics.
>
> (Formatted version available here:
> https://github.com/devrandom/btc-papers/blob/master/aux-pow.md )
>
> # Soft-fork Introduction of a New POW
First of all, I don't think you can really call this a soft-fork; I'd call it a
"pseudo-soft-fork"
My reasoning being that after implementation, a chain with less total work than
the main chain - but more total SHA256^2 work than the main chain - might be
followed by non-supporting clients. It's got some properties of a soft-fork,
but it's security model is definitely different.
> ### Aux POW intermediate block
>
> Auxiliary POW blocks are introduced between normal blocks - i.e. the chain
> alternates between the two POWs.
> Each aux-POW block points to the previous normal block and contains
> transactions just like a normal block.
> Each normal block points to the previous aux-POW block and must contain all
> transactions from the aux-POW block.
Note how you're basically proposing for the block interval to be decreased,
which has security implications due to increased orphan rates.
> ### Heaviest chain rule change
>
> This is a semi-hard change, because non-upgraded nodes can get on the wrong
> chain in case of attack. However,
Exactly! Not really a soft-fork.
--
https://petertodd.org 'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org
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