4 ms·

The network needs a blocks every 10 minutes or so in order to mint a coinbase transaction (the tx that generates new Bitcoins). This is important to ensure that

The network needs a blocks every 10 minutes or so in order to mint a coinbase transaction (the tx that generates new Bitcoins). This is important to ensure that the network reaches 21million cap on time. If new blocks are not minted every 10 minutes, the calculation to reach 21million will be distorted.

darig 6y ago
The network adjusts the difficulty (number of prefixed 0's in the hash) based on estimated mining capacity based on a running average time to complete previous blocks. There is no "on time" to reach the 21 million cap. All those "calculations" that would be "distorted" are those of the hedge fund managers who are holding strictly out of speculation. There is no way to prove an entity hasn't been mining on the side, capable of mining blocks faster than the main chain, even keeping up with increased difficulty, and any day they could publish their chain to the network, and it would be accepted as it was the longest chain. This would obviously destroy bitcoin, so the only reason to do that would be pure terrorism. Exploiting a 51% attack to double spend would also destroy the trust, so any attacker in it for the money is currently just mining empty blocks and getting rewarded for it, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them. Once the 21 millions coins are all in the wild, transaction fees will need to be enough to entice them to keep running... otherwise, they cash out and burn it all down. If they aren't capable of burning it all down, perhaps the number of people validating transactions on the network goes way down... and the difficulty goes way down... until eventually all those old people from the mining days could turn their machines back on one day for a much easier 51% that they are now capable of. The whole thing is a mess.

4 ms·

The network needs a blocks every 10 minutes or so in order to mint a coinbase transaction (the tx that generates new Bitcoins). This is important to ensure that

by shivekkhurana 6y ago

darig 6y ago
The network adjusts the difficulty (number of prefixed 0's in the hash) based on estimated mining capacity based on a running average time to complete previous blocks. There is no "on time" to reach the 21 million cap. All those "calculations" that would be "distorted" are those of the hedge fund managers who are holding strictly out of speculation. There is no way to prove an entity hasn't been mining on the side, capable of mining blocks faster than the main chain, even keeping up with increased difficulty, and any day they could publish their chain to the network, and it would be accepted as it was the longest chain. This would obviously destroy bitcoin, so the only reason to do that would be pure terrorism. Exploiting a 51% attack to double spend would also destroy the trust, so any attacker in it for the money is currently just mining empty blocks and getting rewarded for it, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them. Once the 21 millions coins are all in the wild, transaction fees will need to be enough to entice them to keep running... otherwise, they cash out and burn it all down. If they aren't capable of burning it all down, perhaps the number of people validating transactions on the network goes way down... and the difficulty goes way down... until eventually all those old people from the mining days could turn their machines back on one day for a much easier 51% that they are now capable of. The whole thing is a mess.