From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from sog-mx-1.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com ([172.29.43.191] helo=mx.sourceforge.net) by sfs-ml-3.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtp (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1UlxZY-0001r3-Ka for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:35:28 +0000 Received-SPF: pass (sog-mx-1.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com: domain of gmail.com designates 209.85.223.171 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.85.223.171; envelope-from=pieter.wuille@gmail.com; helo=mail-ie0-f171.google.com; Received: from mail-ie0-f171.google.com ([209.85.223.171]) by sog-mx-1.v43.ch3.sourceforge.com with esmtps (TLSv1:RC4-SHA:128) (Exim 4.76) id 1UlxZV-0000hf-6f for bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:35:28 +0000 Received: by mail-ie0-f171.google.com with SMTP id qd12so1352315ieb.30 for ; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 01:35:20 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.50.136.201 with SMTP id qc9mr3588489igb.47.1370853319960; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 01:35:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.50.149.233 with HTTP; Mon, 10 Jun 2013 01:35:19 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:35:19 +0200 Message-ID: From: Pieter Wuille To: Melvin Carvalho Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Spam-Score: -1.6 (-) 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 FREEMAIL_FROM Sender email is commonly abused enduser mail provider (pieter.wuille[at]gmail.com) -0.0 SPF_PASS SPF: sender matches SPF record -0.1 DKIM_VALID_AU Message has a valid DKIM or DK signature from author's domain 0.1 DKIM_SIGNED Message has a DKIM or DK signature, not necessarily valid -0.1 DKIM_VALID Message has at least one valid DKIM or DK signature X-Headers-End: 1UlxZV-0000hf-6f Cc: Bitcoin Dev Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Proposal: Vote on the blocksize limit with proof-of-stake voting 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: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:35:28 -0000 On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 10:14 AM, Melvin Carvalho wrote: > However, Bitcoin's fundamental philosophy was one CPU one vote. This is perhaps the largest misconception that keeps being repeated. Bitcoin is not a democracy; it is a zero-trust system. The rules are set in stone, and every full node verifies all rules and must independently come to the same result as everyone else. Obviously, if everyone changes their software, anything can change, but from within the system there is no way to change which blocks are considered valid, and there is certainly no voting mechanism about that. What is voted about, is the one single thing that cannot be decided by each node individually: namely the order of otherwise valid and non-conflicting transactions, and that's just because it's a necessity. Because deciding the order includes delaying transaction potentially indefinitely, a majority of miners can indeed choose the enforce an additional rule about which transactions are considered valid, but the rules implemented in full nodes do not change without changing the software. For example, miners cannot decide to raise the block subsidy, even if every single miner out there would want that. They'd just end up being ignored by everyone else. > Voting is easily gamed. While this may work in one particular case, it is > perhaps a bad precedent to set. Establishing methods of voting can lead to > single points of failure. The problem is that at some point, you have to look at the system from a higher level than just the technical part. And because ultimately the possibility exists where everyone changes their software, and there is an exceedingly high incentive for consensus (a deliberate hard-fork where two groups of users decide to use different and incompatible rules, aware of eachother, is suicide for the system, in my opinion). This results in the fact that proposed changes can indeed become new adopted hard rules in the system, and I don't think there's anything that can be done about it. Bitcoin is a consensus system - at the technical level - but also a consensus of the people using it, and ultimately they decide the rules. > Unless there's a very good reason not to, e.g. miners are clearly abusing > the system, we should stick with 1 CPU one vote. So you're saying that instead of a zero-trust system, we should move to a system where miners can decide _everything_ - as opposed to just being in charge of ordering transactions? I don't think you understand the system at all, if that is what you're proposing. -- Pieter