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Why can't we tie the bitcoin mining process to some sort of useful calculation? Maybe some variant of folding @home or something? We just need some problem with
by icegreentea 15y ago
Why can't we tie the bitcoin mining process to some sort of useful calculation? Maybe some variant of folding @home or something? We just need some problem with a hard to calculate, but easy to verify 'right answer' right?
- weavejester 15y agoMore than that. It needs to be a problem that takes a predictable time to solve, it needs to be a problem that we're unlikely to discover faster algorithms for, and it needs to be something we can tie to a set of data. Cryptographic hashes are designed to have these exact properties. If we wanted to replace this with a "useful" calculation, you'd essentially need to create a new hashing algorithm that also had some practical use beyond hashing a set of data. Given that creating good cryptographic hashing algorithms is hard enough, I suspect that creating one that is tied to a "useful" result is not feasible.
- mike_esspe 15y agoEven if such calculation could be possible, bitcoin network probably would be less secure, because attacker can attack it and be compensated for attack.
- DennisP 15y agoNo, mining solves a specific problem: it generates an agreed-upon ordered list of transactions, so if anyone double-spends, everyone agrees that the first recipient owns the coin. The new coins are just an incentive to solve the problem. To solve this problem, the input has to be bitcoin transactions, rather than biologically-relevant amino acid sequences.