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From: Zac Greenwood <zachgrw@gmail.com>
To: Bitcoin Protocol Discussion
	<bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>,
	 ZmnSCPxj <ZmnSCPxj@protonmail.com>
Cc: SatoshiSingh <SatoshiSingh@protonmail.com>
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Opinion on proof of stake in future
Date: Tue, 18 May 2021 12:16:01 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAJ4-pEBYJNuNMUCt5J5DbKU4RC9JXcO7gZdKh2Vq6PHCmddaeg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <30li5MRxkBhzLxLmzRnHkCdn8n3Feqegi-FLZ5VDyIX2uRJfq4kVtrsLxw6dUtsM1atYV25IfIfDaQp4s2Dn2vc8LvYkhbAsn0v_Fwjerpw=@protonmail.com>

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VDFs might enable more constant block times, for instance by having a
two-step PoW:

1. Use a VDF that takes say 9 minutes to resolve (VDF being subject to
difficulty adjustments similar to the as-is). As per the property of VDFs,
miners are able show proof of work.

2. Use current PoW mechanism with lower difficulty so finding a block takes
1 minute on average, again subject to as-is difficulty adjustments.

As a result, variation in block times will be greatly reduced.

Zac


On Tue, 18 May 2021 at 09:07, ZmnSCPxj via bitcoin-dev <
bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:

> Good morning Erik,
>
> > Verifiable Delay Functions involve active participation of a single
> > verifier. Without this a VDF decays into a proof-of-work (multiple
> > verifiers === parallelism).
> >
> > The verifier, in this case is "the bitcoin network" taken as a whole.
> > I think it is reasonable to consider that some difficult-to-game
> > property of the last N blocks (like the hash of the last 100
> > block-id's or whatever), could be the verification input.
> >
> > The VDF gets calculated by every eligible proof-of-burn miner, and
> > then this is used to prevent a timing issue.
> >
> > Seems reasonable to me, but I haven't looked too far into the
> > requirements of VDF's
> >
> > nice summary for anyone who is interested:
> > https://medium.com/@djrtwo/vdfs-are-not-proof-of-work-91ba3bec2bf4
> >
> > While VDF's almost always lead to a "cpu-speed monopoly", this would
> > only be helpful for block latency in a proof-of-burn chain. Block
> > height would be calculated by eligible-miner-burned-coins, so the
> > monopoly could be easily avoided.
>
> Interesting link.
>
> However, I would like to point out that the *real* reason that PoW
> consumes lots of power is ***NOT***:
>
> * Proof-of-work is parallelizable, so it allows miners consume more energy
> (by buying more grinders) in order to get more blocks than their
> competitors.
>
> The *real* reason is:
>
> * Proof-of-work allows miners to consume more energy in order to get more
> blocks than their competitors.
>
> VDFs attempt to sidestep that by removing parallelism.
> However, there are ways to increase *sequential* speed, such as:
>
> * Overclocking.
>   * This shortens lifetime, so you can spend more energy (on building new
> miners) in order to get more blocks than your competitors.
> * Lower temperatures.
>   * This requires refrigeration/cooling, so you can spend more energy (on
> the refrigeration process) in order to get more blocks than your
> competitors.
>
> I am certain people with gaming rigs can point out more ways to improve
> sequential speed, as necessary to get more frames per second.
>
> Given the above, I think VDFs will still fail at their intended task.
> Speed, yo.
>
> Thus, VDFs do not serve as a sufficient deterrent away from
> ever-increasing energy consumption --- it just moves the energy consumption
> increase away from the obvious (parallelism) to the
> obscure-if-you-have-no-gamer-buds.
>
> You humans just need to get up to Kardashev 1.0, stat.
>
> Regards,
> ZmnSCPxj
> _______________________________________________
> bitcoin-dev mailing list
> bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org
> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
>

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  reply	other threads:[~2021-05-18 10:16 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 67+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-05-07 17:17 [bitcoin-dev] Opinion on proof of stake in future SatoshiSingh
2021-05-07 23:04 ` Eric Voskuil
2021-05-08 14:33   ` Karl
2021-05-09 10:21     ` R E Broadley
2021-05-09 10:59       ` Karl
2021-05-07 23:19 ` Jeremy
2021-05-08  2:40   ` honest69abe
2021-05-08 14:42     ` Karl
2021-05-09 19:07       ` Cloud Strife
2021-05-08 13:44 ` Eric Martindale
2021-05-09 11:30   ` R E Broadley
2021-05-10 14:08 ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-10 15:01   ` Keagan McClelland
2021-05-10 21:22     ` LORD HIS EXCELLENCY JAMES HRMH
2021-05-10 21:51     ` Jeremy
2021-05-17 16:58       ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-18  7:06         ` ZmnSCPxj
2021-05-18 10:16           ` Zac Greenwood [this message]
2021-05-18 10:42             ` ZmnSCPxj
2021-05-18 14:02               ` Zac Greenwood
2021-05-18 18:52                 ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-19 14:07                   ` Michael Dubrovsky
2021-05-19 15:30                     ` Michael Dubrovsky
2021-05-21  0:04                       ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-21  9:42                         ` vizeet srivastava
2021-05-21 20:57                         ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-21 21:45                           ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-23  3:41                         ` Lloyd Fournier
2021-05-23 19:10                           ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-23 19:28                             ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-24 13:47                           ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-24 20:43                             ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-24 21:49                               ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-25  1:52                                 ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-25 13:00                                   ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-25 20:01                                     ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-25 21:10                                       ` befreeandopen
2021-05-26  6:53                                         ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-26 13:11                                           ` befreeandopen
2021-05-26 22:07                                             ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-28 14:40                                               ` befreeandopen
2021-05-28 20:06                                                 ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-28 21:40                                                   ` Billy Tetrud
2021-06-01  8:21                                                   ` befreeandopen
2021-06-01 16:33                                                     ` Erik Aronesty
2021-06-01 19:26                                                       ` befreeandopen
2021-06-01 20:28                                                         ` Erik Aronesty
2021-06-03  5:30                                                           ` SatoshiSingh
2021-06-07  6:15                                                             ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-27 10:08                                             ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-27 13:11                                               ` Erik Aronesty
2021-05-28 14:36                                               ` befreeandopen
2021-05-25  8:22                               ` befreeandopen
2021-06-15 11:13                           ` James MacWhyte
2021-06-17  1:48                             ` Lloyd Fournier
2021-06-17  3:31                             ` Cloud Strife
2021-06-22 17:45                               ` Billy Tetrud
2021-06-23 18:14                                 ` Keagan McClelland
2021-06-24  0:14                                   ` Billy Tetrud
2021-06-24  0:37                                     ` Keagan McClelland
2021-06-24 17:34                                     ` yanmaani
2021-06-24 21:50                                       ` Erik Aronesty
2021-06-25  0:29                                         ` yanmaani
2021-06-25 16:08                                           ` Ruben Somsen
     [not found]                                             ` <MN2PR10MB4030EBD14EF82E29CFEDD00FB1069@MN2PR10MB4030.namprd10.prod.outlook.com>
2021-06-26 16:26                                               ` Billy Tetrud
2021-05-08 10:21 Prayank
     [not found] <mailman.100801.1624522329.32591.bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
2021-06-24  8:59 ` Carlo Spiller

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