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In brief, an attacker is an agent or group of agents that execute a double-spend attack. In Ethereum's proposed PoS system, all stakeholders that collude in the

by rictic 9y ago

In brief, an attacker is an agent or group of agents that execute a double-spend attack. In Ethereum's proposed PoS system, all stakeholders that collude in the double-spend attack would have their stake destroyed. These properties are automatically detectable, and once detected enforcement is automatic.

amluto 9y ago
I must be missing a few things, though: 1. What if there simply isn't a quorum of the selected signers for a given block, due to people being on vacation, DoS, network failure, etc? Does the whole chain grind to a halt? 2. PoS relies on punishing anyone who signs a block that's not on the main chain. But who defines what the main chain is? If I'm a selected blockmaker or, worse, I control a quorum once, can't I forfeit my deposit to fake someone else out so they sign a block on my bad chain? Then I report both them and myself, bankrupting them and recovering some of my own losses? 3. This whole scheme penalizes cold wallet users. If you don't use your cold wallet funds as mining collateral, you lose the reward. If you do, then anyone who compromises your deposit signing key (which needs to be hot) can wipe you out and steal 1/3 of your deposit.
- jzoch 9y ago
  You are a bit off. As a preface, I really recommend reading https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ. For your first question, if people are on vacation and there are no validators then Ethereum would be dead. It wouldnt make sense that the global pool of validators would disappear, but even so, it would wait I assume. IF half the validators left, it would choose from the other half. 2. THe main chain is currently defined as the longest defined chain fully validated. To fake someone out, you would need to tell them your vote for a block, and they would need to blindly vote the same without doing any due diligence on the block (which would defeat the purpose) and they would be rightfully burned. That is the same as a miner who just copies the work of other miners, they do nothing. 3. I dont understand this at all. You do not need to stake. You are rewarded but lose liquidity. It is your choice, just as lending compute was your choice with PoW. Hopefully this is good, the link goes into a lot of detail that should clear things up!

by rictic 9y ago

amluto 9y ago

I must be missing a few things, though: 1. What if there simply isn't a quorum of the selected signers for a given block, due to people being on vacation, DoS, network failure, etc? Does the whole chain grind to a halt? 2. PoS relies on punishing anyone who signs a block that's not on the main chain. But who defines what the main chain is? If I'm a selected blockmaker or, worse, I control a quorum once, can't I forfeit my deposit to fake someone else out so they sign a block on my bad chain? Then I report both them and myself, bankrupting them and recovering some of my own losses? 3. This whole scheme penalizes cold wallet users. If you don't use your cold wallet funds as mining collateral, you lose the reward. If you do, then anyone who compromises your deposit signing key (which needs to be hot) can wipe you out and steal 1/3 of your deposit.

jzoch 9y ago
You are a bit off. As a preface, I really recommend reading https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ. For your first question, if people are on vacation and there are no validators then Ethereum would be dead. It wouldnt make sense that the global pool of validators would disappear, but even so, it would wait I assume. IF half the validators left, it would choose from the other half. 2. THe main chain is currently defined as the longest defined chain fully validated. To fake someone out, you would need to tell them your vote for a block, and they would need to blindly vote the same without doing any due diligence on the block (which would defeat the purpose) and they would be rightfully burned. That is the same as a miner who just copies the work of other miners, they do nothing. 3. I dont understand this at all. You do not need to stake. You are rewarded but lose liquidity. It is your choice, just as lending compute was your choice with PoW. Hopefully this is good, the link goes into a lot of detail that should clear things up!