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Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 10:20:42 -0400
Message-ID: <CANOOu=9W42upZGtXWvRwyJH0tO766VT37jAR23V_rCZ9+qxTTw@mail.gmail.com>
From: Christophe Biocca <christophe.biocca@gmail.com>
To: =?UTF-8?B?UmHDumwgTWFydMOtbmV6?= <rme@i-rme.es>
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Cc: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Proposals for improving Bitcoin mining
	decentralization
Precedence: list

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Getblocktemplate is supposed to solve most
of the pooling-centralization problems. Unfortunately, it is opt-in,
and GHash.io doesn't support it.

Also most miners don't care and don't do the work to set it up. To do
transaction inclusion themselves, they'd need to run a full node,
which is a bit more work and resources than just pointing hashpower at
a stratum server.

If you figure out a way to make GBT widely used (>50% hashpower), kudos to =
you.

On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 4:57 AM, Ra=C3=BAl Mart=C3=ADnez <rme@i-rme.es> wro=
te:
> First of all I apologice due to the possible mistakes in my writing below=
, I
> am not a Bitcoin developer but I have some knowledge about it.
>
> ----
>
> We all know the recent news, Ghash pool controlling 51% of the hashrate.
> While some consider it a threat others think that is not harmful.
>
> The thing is that we have to do something to stop this from happening aga=
in.
>
> My proposal is to start thinking about miners that join a pool like
> independent miners and not slave miners, this includes creating a new min=
ing
> protocol that does not rely on the pool sending the list of transactions =
to
> include in a block. Each individual miner has to collect transactions by =
his
> own and mine that, this can be achieved by running a full node or by runn=
ing
> a SPV like node that ask other nodes for transactions.
>
> Once this protocol is developed and standarised we as a community could
> require all pools to use it (because its better, because is more
> trustless...), not by imposing it but by recommending it.
>
> Pool owners could send some instructions using this protocol to the miner
> about how many transactions to include per block (some pools want small
> blocks), how many 0 fee transactions to include, how much is the minimum =
fee
> per Kb to include transactions and some info about the Coinbase field in =
the
> block.
>
> This way is impossible to perform some of the possible 51% attacks:
>
> A pool owner cant mine a new chain (selfish mining) (pool clients have a =
SPV
> or full node that has checkpoints and ask other peers about the length of
> the chain)
> A pool owner can't perform double spends or reverse transactions (pool
> clients know all the transactions relayed to the network, they know if th=
ey
> are already included on a block)
> A pool owner cant decide which transactions not to include (but they can
> configure the minimum fee).
> A pool owner cant get all the rewards by avoiding other pools from mining
> blocks (Because the pool client knows the last block independently that i=
s
> from his pool or other).
>
>
> The only thing that a 51% pool owner can do is to shut down his pool and
> drop the hashrate by 51% because he does not control the miners.
>
> If the pool owner owns all the hardware in the pool my proposal is not
> valid, if the pool clients dont use this protocol my proposal is not vali=
d.
>
>
> I want to know if this is possible or its been developed or there is alre=
ady
> a working protocol that works like this, also I want to read other people=
's
> ways to address this threat, thanks for reading.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
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