Blockchain University
Consenus: Proof of work and the upstarts
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What makes Bitcoin special and why are so many smart people working on alternatives?
Tendermint | Pebble | NXT | Ethereum |Hyperledger et al...
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What is the consensus?
- A secure global ledger
- Anonymously ordered
- Independently verified by every full node
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A Secure? global ledger
Crypto....
- Sane but not finely tuned choices of cryptographic primitives
Selfishness
- A finely tuned set of incetives secure the network
- Value At Risk becomes a new parameter in cryptananalysis
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Proof of Work is special
Proof of Work is special
- Randomizes selection of the next block
- Thermodynamically commits to a certain history
- Attacks on the system risk both real resources and probablistic opportunites
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Proof of Work is fragile
Proof of Work is fragile
- Incentives can collapse: See Dogecoin
- New use cases can change the risk reward model.
Tokenization and metaprotocols can increase the frequency of attacks on the ledger
- Poisson process limits the speed and scalability
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Proof of Work is scarce
Proof of Work is scarce
- Proof of Work implies a (small) finite number of blockchain structures
- A few opportunties to get the long term incentives right
- Proof of work is tightly coupled to currency applications
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Two movements
- Scale and improve proof of work. Create frameworks for experimentation
- Build entirely new systems with new incentive structures and potentiall increased stability
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Enormous amounts of learning in the last few years
- Taxononmy of vulnerabilities of consensus algorithims
- A set of new systems that appear resistant to those attacks
#bculaunch
Enormous amounts of learning in the last few years
- Taxononmy of vulnerabilities of consensus alogrithims
- A set of new systems that appear resistant to those attacks
#bculaunch