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The consensus here is trivial to control by the strongest of the group. What if when Hugo sent the 200 coins, he said “oh we’re allowed to generate 200 coins if

by hudon 8y ago

The consensus here is trivial to control by the strongest of the group. What if when Hugo sent the 200 coins, he said “oh we’re allowed to generate 200 coins if it has been over 3 days of no coin generation” and his statement would be impossible to verify because: 1- They have no way to get in touch with the central authority, the developer (author of the blog post), who can tell the users if the new consensus rule is allowed or not. 2- They have no written account of the consensus rules, which would help to at least invalidate new consensus rules that seem to conflict with the written ones. So what would happen if Hugo did this? Well if he’s the strongest of the bunch, he could simply impose on the group and say “this is a new consensus rule, accept it or else”. So much for decentralized consensus!

Lapsa 8y ago
I hate Hugo
joekrill 8y ago
Well the article does explicitly say: > Is this an ideal blockchain implementation? Probably not. It can be improved in many ways. To your point, though, couldn't the rules just be part of the block chain and documented as a "transaction"? Any change in the rules would just be another transaction and require majority approval.
pavel_lishin 8y ago
> Well if he’s the strongest of the bunch, he could simply impose on the group and say “this is a new consensus rule, accept it or else”. So much for decentralized consensus! Isn't this always the case? If Hugo is strong enough, he can also bully his way into abandoning the blockhain, and relying on his word for what everyone's balance is. (Of course, this kills any notion of an actual economy, and becomes a totalitarian regime powered by effectively slave labor...)
- hudon 8y ago
  > Isn’t this always the case? Well yea, that’s how societies work. Social hierarchies emerge as we delegate power to the strong and wise. If they abuse their power, there is strife and potentially war, and eventually the corrupt leader gets replaced with a new one. The idea that Bitcoin or any given blockchain is “more decentralized” than what we currently have is profoundly flawed. All you have to do to control a blockchain is control its consensus rules, as the Hugo example demonstrates. All you have to do to control the consensus rules is control the developers... and developers don’t operate in some parallel universe outside of our governments’ control. All that to say, yes indeed, Hugo runs the show here, blockchain or not... just like he runs the show in the real world.

by hudon 8y ago

Lapsa 8y ago

I hate Hugo

joekrill 8y ago

Well the article does explicitly say: > Is this an ideal blockchain implementation? Probably not. It can be improved in many ways. To your point, though, couldn't the rules just be part of the block chain and documented as a "transaction"? Any change in the rules would just be another transaction and require majority approval.

pavel_lishin 8y ago

> Well if he’s the strongest of the bunch, he could simply impose on the group and say “this is a new consensus rule, accept it or else”. So much for decentralized consensus! Isn't this always the case? If Hugo is strong enough, he can also bully his way into abandoning the blockhain, and relying on his word for what everyone's balance is. (Of course, this kills any notion of an actual economy, and becomes a totalitarian regime powered by effectively slave labor...)

hudon 8y ago
> Isn’t this always the case? Well yea, that’s how societies work. Social hierarchies emerge as we delegate power to the strong and wise. If they abuse their power, there is strife and potentially war, and eventually the corrupt leader gets replaced with a new one. The idea that Bitcoin or any given blockchain is “more decentralized” than what we currently have is profoundly flawed. All you have to do to control a blockchain is control its consensus rules, as the Hugo example demonstrates. All you have to do to control the consensus rules is control the developers... and developers don’t operate in some parallel universe outside of our governments’ control. All that to say, yes indeed, Hugo runs the show here, blockchain or not... just like he runs the show in the real world.