From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from smtp1.linuxfoundation.org (smtp1.linux-foundation.org [172.17.192.35]) by mail.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 532B4B93 for ; Wed, 13 Sep 2017 09:50:57 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from mail.osc.co.cr (unknown [168.235.79.83]) by smtp1.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 11CA8A7 for ; Wed, 13 Sep 2017 09:50:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.2.5] (miner1 [71.94.45.245]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: danda) by mail.osc.co.cr (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 105961F2D4 for ; Wed, 13 Sep 2017 02:50:55 -0700 (PDT) To: Bitcoin Protocol Discussion From: Dan Libby Message-ID: <9e212eae-08d5-d083-80d9-a8e29679fcdc@osc.co.cr> Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2017 02:50:53 -0700 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.2.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.3 required=5.0 tests=RDNS_NONE autolearn=disabled version=3.3.1 X-Spam-Level: * X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.1 (2010-03-16) on smtp1.linux-foundation.org X-Mailman-Approved-At: Thu, 14 Sep 2017 22:50:46 +0000 Subject: [bitcoin-dev] hypothetical: Could soft-forks be prevented? X-BeenThere: bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12 Precedence: list List-Id: Bitcoin Protocol Discussion List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2017 09:50:57 -0000 Hi, I am interested in the possibility of a cryptocurrency software (future bitcoin or a future altcoin) that strives to have immutable consensus rules. The goal of such a cryptocurrency would not be to have the latest and greatest tech, but rather to be a long-term store of value and to offer investors great certainty and predictability... something that markets tend to like. And of course, zero consensus rule changes also means less chance of new bugs and attack surface remains the same, which is good for security. Of course, hard-forks are always possible. But that is a clear split and something that people must opt into. Each party has to make a choice, and inertia is on the side of the status quo. Whereas soft-forks sort of drag people along with them, even those who oppose the changes and never upgrade. In my view, that is problematic, especially for a coin with permanent consensus rule immutability as a goal/ethic. As I understand it, bitcoin soft-forks always rely on anyone-can-spend transactions. If those were removed, would it effectively prevent soft-forks, or are there other possible mechanisms? How important are any-one-can spend tx for other uses? More generally, do you think it is possible to programmatically avoid/ban soft-forks, and if so, how would you go about it?