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In practice it is better to build p2p systems under the stronger assumption that actors need not be economically rational. Otherwise the market could be attacke
by hendzen 13y ago
In practice it is better to build p2p systems under the stronger assumption that actors need not be economically rational. Otherwise the market could be attacked (say by a nation state that wants to kill it) by repeatedly building up rep, then scamming on a large transaction (even if the accumulated rep is worth more) to destroy faith in the market itself.
- runeks 13y agoOf course. But if this is not possible, we're much better off with a system where at least actors cannot profit from being dishonest. I think Bitcoin is a great example of a system that is not cryptographically secure per se, but still holds up because actors need to spend money to - temporarily - prevent it from functioning properly.