From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from sog-mx-4.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com ([172.29.43.194] helo=mx.sourceforge.net) by sfs-ml-3.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtp (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1UiSed-0006lI-CA for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Fri, 31 May 2013 16:58:15 +0000 Received-SPF: pass (sog-mx-4.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com: domain of petertodd.org designates 62.13.148.109 as permitted sender) client-ip=62.13.148.109; envelope-from=pete@petertodd.org; helo=outmail148109.authsmtp.co.uk; Received: from outmail148109.authsmtp.co.uk ([62.13.148.109]) by sog-mx-4.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtp (Exim 4.76) id 1UiSeZ-0001r5-Hb for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Fri, 31 May 2013 16:58:15 +0000 Received: from mail-c232.authsmtp.com (mail-c232.authsmtp.com [62.13.128.232]) by punt12.authsmtp.com (8.14.2/8.14.2/Kp) with ESMTP id r4VGw5Iv097795 for ; Fri, 31 May 2013 17:58:05 +0100 (BST) Received: from petertodd.org (petertodd.org [174.129.28.249]) (authenticated bits=128) by mail.authsmtp.com (8.14.2/8.14.2/) with ESMTP id r4VGvwaH006708 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Fri, 31 May 2013 17:58:01 +0100 (BST) Date: Fri, 31 May 2013 12:57:58 -0400 From: Peter Todd To: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net Message-ID: <20130531165758.GA29135@petertodd.org> References: <20130527111149.GB8955@tilt> <20130531165445.GA29104@petertodd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="W/nzBZO5zC0uMSeA" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20130531165445.GA29104@petertodd.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) X-Server-Quench: 40f3c6ed-ca13-11e2-b10b-0025903375e2 X-AuthReport-Spam: If SPAM / abuse - report it at: http://www.authsmtp.com/abuse X-AuthRoute: OCd2Yg0TA1ZNQRgX IjsJECJaVQIpKltL GxAVJwpGK10IU0Fd P1hXKl1LNVAaWXld WiVPGEoXDxgzCjYj NEgGOBsDNw4AXAR1 LRkAXVBSFQZ4ABsL AxYUUhg8dgJCZn9y bFhgVm5ZWE1lcE56 XU8aV2lgEiEnORgf UEZfdwsadwVKeFFB agZ8B3VYNXhUN3tj WlZqMmp0N2wHImEN GltQfApJGhlWE2Qq ax0JEDMzB0QBRjcy KRNuL18aHUAeWgAA X-Authentic-SMTP: 61633532353630.1019:706 X-AuthFastPath: 0 (Was 255) X-AuthSMTP-Origin: 174.129.28.249/587 X-AuthVirus-Status: No virus detected - but ensure you scan with your own anti-virus system. X-Spam-Score: -1.5 (-) X-Spam-Report: Spam Filtering performed by mx.sourceforge.net. See http://spamassassin.org/tag/ for more details. -1.5 SPF_CHECK_PASS SPF reports sender host as permitted sender for sender-domain -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record X-Headers-End: 1UiSeZ-0001r5-Hb Subject: [Bitcoin-development] Decentralizing mining X-BeenThere: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 31 May 2013 16:58:15 -0000 --W/nzBZO5zC0uMSeA Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I just posted the following to bitcointalk. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3D221164.0 Right now between two to four running the largest pools control Bitcoin in the short term. That's a lot of hashing power in the hands of very, very few people. In addition pools have little incentive to run secure operations, and many pools have been hacked with their funds stolen. Those hacks could just have easily been used to attack the network itself. This needs to change. Pooled-solo mining is a concept Gregory Maxwell, Luke Dashjr and I were discussing at the conference two weeks ago. (credit goes to Greg and Luke; I was mostly just listening) Basically the idea is that miners with mining equipment run a local Bitcoin node and use that node to construct the blocks they mine - the same as if they were solo mining. The pools job is then to only track shares and organize payouts. If the pool gets hacked the worst that can happen is miners are ripped off, rather than Bitcoin itself being attacked. With pooled-solo mining even a pool with a majority of hashing power wouldn't be able to do much harm to Bitcoin. (depending on the implementation they may be able to blacklist specific transactions - the pool needs to know what transactions are in the share to credit fees properly) Tech-wise Luke created getblocktemplate last year as a means to audit mining pools. I'm sure Greg and Luke can explain the nitty gritty details better than I can, but essentially the plan is to take getblocktemplate and extend it as required for pooled-solo mining. This will include pool and miner software initially, and later improvements to GUIs and what not to make the whole process easier. With the success of my recent video project I also want to make this Keep Bitcoin Free's next project, specifically funding a developer (likely Luke) to make this happen. Additionally once software is written and easily usable a good follow-up would be a video and other media to promote the idea to miners. No guarantees we'll be able to come up with commercially competitive remuneration, but we can at least come up with a "Thank you" tip. But first lets discuss the technical requirements to get an idea of what the scope is. Finally, for the record, a big part of the reason why myself and other Keep Bitcoin Free supporters are interested in doing this is very much to take power over the direction of the network from big pools and put it into the hands of thousands of individual miners. It's much easier to convince people that changes to Bitcoin, like increasing the blocksize, are directly impacting decentralization when individual miners are seeing that happen to themselves. --=20 'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org 00000000000000c14fa7031b2431ab32785efdf1e5aaecc83555ee52a2fc550b --W/nzBZO5zC0uMSeA Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: Digital signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.11 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAlGo1pYACgkQpEFN739thoxJQgCdGyuGc5lJFRFZcUY3BjezI0Vu z6UAnRqp4TALwDM31Pk8oHdzPX1yZlzG =HmQm -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --W/nzBZO5zC0uMSeA--