1/8 About that mining death spiral thing. Clearly the mainstream media are being alarmist, as they often are, but...
That does not mean there isn't a real risk worth serious investigation. There is, and you might be interested in this old discussion: bitcointalk.org/index.php?topi…2/8 The root problem has to do with the fact that the difficulty retarget algorithm in Bitcoin is terrible, as I've described at
1/7 The difficulty retarget algorithm in Bitcoin is terrible. It fails to achieve its stated goal - 2016 blocks every 2 weeks - in several ways:
2/7 1. It's not balanced over long periods of time. If hashrate is on a long-term upward trend, blocks will arrive faster than normal. Noticed how the 2012 block halving party was in November, but in 2016 it was in July? We will keep getting further ahead of schedule.
May 21, 2018 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
1/10 The reason "Blockchain" is so susceptible to cargo cult mentality is that the fundamental features that make it what it is are, in a sense, invisible, and inseparable from how the technology works.
2/10 If I invent a new, more efficient lightbulb, I can easily demonstrate that it A) gives off a certain luminance and B) draws less power than similarly-bright bulbs. Anyone can see this demo and be convinced it's the real deal, no knowledge of how my design works is required.
