Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Coinbase reallocation to discourage Finney attacks

From: Sergio Lerner <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 12:13:40 -0300

On 23/04/2014 05:51 p.m., Mike Hearn wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 10:44 PM, Adam Ritter <[email-masked]
> <mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:
>
>     Isn't a faster blockchain for transactions (maybe as a sidechain)
>     solving the problem? If there would be a safe way for
>     0-confirmation transactions, the Bitcoin blockchain wouldn't even
>     be needed.
>
>
> The 10 minute average comes from a desire to balance wasted work due
> to natural chain splits with latency. With a very fast block interval
> you end up with lots of forks and things take longer to converge,
> also, it can make attacks easier because an attacker is building on
> his own blocks so he doesn't suffer propagation delays and the
> attendant splits.
>
> It's not clear you can just make a faster block chain. 10 minutes is
> somewhat arbitrary, it could be 5 minutes and the system would still
> work, but it probably can't be 5 seconds.
5 seconds block interval is possible. I've simulate it with great
success and I encourage anyone to repeat or check my simulations.

There are a very few protocol modifications that are required to allow 5
seconds block, and most of them have already been discussed in the forums.
For more information you can check my post:
http://bitslog.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/5-sec-block-interval/
Also NimbleCoin is a new alt-coin that uses 5-sec block intervals,
allows 100 tps and .... it's based on BitcoinJ (NimbleCoinJ now). So not
only it is possible, but it was coded by Mike itself.
Important note: the 5-sec block interval method probably requires a
block reward forever. It doesn't work well if there is no block reward
at all.

>
> Unfortunately for best physical-world usability you really need very
> fast payments. A few seconds is competitive with modern credit cards.
Another solution to achieve <5 secs block intervals is this:
http://bitslog.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/mincen-a-new-protocol-to-achieve-instant-payments/

So the problem with 0-confirmations is solely of Bitcoin and other
alt-coins, new alt-coins may achieve instant transactions and no not
have to rely on 0-confirmations.

Best regards,
 Sergio.