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Sybil resistance in two forms in Tendermint. 1. You assume the initial distribution of tokens is trusted. If someone presents you a consensus without a history
by zmanian 12y ago
Sybil resistance in two forms in Tendermint.
1. You assume the initial distribution of tokens is trusted. If someone presents you a consensus without a history to make you believe that initial distribution isn't full of sybils, distrust.
2. Assuming a large trusted initial distribution, operationally you have to believe that 1/3rd of the validator nodes don't want to double spend/ present an alternate reality to you.
- teraflop 12y agoFor point 1, sure: Bitcoin does the same thing, and "blesses" a particular initial block as the starting point of the chain by hard-coding it into the client. No reason Tendermint wouldn't do the same thing. I don't see how your point 2 solves anything, though; it's just failing to acknowledge the problem. Why is it reasonable for me to think that a supermajority of the nodes are honest? If validators are supposed to be computationally cheap to run, compared to bitcoin miners, then what stops an attacker from running lots of them to get a larger voting share?
- Kalium 12y agoIn the Bitcoin/cryptocurrency world, there's a rarely-voiced but firmly believed assumption that being annoying and expensive to attack makes you secure. So the response that you are saying doesn't solve anything is what is believed to be the solution. Personally, I agree with you.
- vbuterin 12y agoValidators are expensive to run. You need to put down a large security deposit in order to be a validator, and being a cheating validator will cost you the entire deposit.