tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post2859907933085324015..comments2024-03-28T07:23:23.408-07:00Comments on DSHR's Blog: Economies of Scale in Peer-to-Peer NetworksDavid.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-61199730936742981082015-01-09T07:01:12.395-08:002015-01-09T07:01:12.395-08:00I apologize for the mistake I made writing this po...I apologize for the mistake I made writing this post. I linked to, rather than captured, the pool size graph. blockchain.info has moved the graph, it is now <a href="https://blockchain.info/pools" rel="nofollow">here</a>.<br /><br />As I write four pools, F2Pool, AntPool, GHash.io and BTCChinaPool control 54% of the mining power. This is better than one or two pools, But, as Ittay Eyal points out in <a href="http://hackingdistributed.com/2014/12/03/the-miners-dilemma/" rel="nofollow">an important post</a>:<br /><br />"The dismantling of overly large pools is one of the most important and difficult tasks facing the Bitcoin community."<br /><br />Pools are needed to generate consistent income but:<br /><br />"[Miners] can get steady income from pools well below 10%, and they have only little incentive to use very large pools; it's mostly convenience and a feeling of trust in large entities."<br /><br />Right now, at least 46% of the mining power is in pools larger than 10%.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-61512741873127954092014-11-10T10:09:51.779-08:002014-11-10T10:09:51.779-08:00One major problem with the centralization that is ...One major problem with the centralization that is driven by economies of scale is that it reduces the resilience of the network to failures. A "data center" that was a major contributor to the overall Bitcoin hash rate was just <a href="http://www.correntewire.com/enormous_bitcoin_mining_operation_goes_up_in_flames" rel="nofollow">destroyed by fire</a>.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-82095436004061918742014-11-05T06:22:47.356-08:002014-11-05T06:22:47.356-08:00On the general topic of digital currencies, the FT...On the general topic of digital currencies, the FT has an excellent corrective to misplaced enthusiasm, Izabella Kaminska's <a href="http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/11/04/2027772/from-the-annals-of-disruptive-digital-currencies-past/" rel="nofollow"><i>From the annals of disruptive digital currencies past</i></a>.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-4858632122634058542014-10-19T12:46:13.514-07:002014-10-19T12:46:13.514-07:00My comment on Waldman's post is here.My comment on Waldman's post is <a href="http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/5712.html#comment-39969" rel="nofollow">here</a>.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4503292949532760618.post-69813965180002308992014-10-19T12:44:54.612-07:002014-10-19T12:44:54.612-07:00Steve Randy Waldman has an interesting post Econom...Steve Randy Waldman has an interesting post <a href="http://www.interfluidity.com/v2/5712.html" rel="nofollow"><i>Econometrics, open science, and cryptocurrency</i></a> arguing that the infrastructure for research should be a P2P network with a cryptocurrency-like consensus system.<br /><br />I have a lot of sympathy for his vision of a shared, preserved research infrastructure: "Ultimately, we should want to generate a reusable, distributed, permanent, and ever-expanding web of science, including conjectures, verifications, modifications, and refutations, and reanalyses as new data arrives. Social science should become a reified public commons. It should be possible to build new analyses from any stage of old work, by recruiting raw data into new projects, by running alternative models on already cleaned-up or normalized data tables, by using an old model's estimates to generate inputs to simulations or new analyses."<br /><br />But, alas, for the reasons set out above, it will be very difficult to implement this using P2P cryptocurrency techniques.<br /><br />There will be significant real costs associated with running nodes in such a network. To motivate participation, there has to be some way to defray these costs, so there has to be an exchange between the cryptocurrency and currency real enough to pay electricity bills and purchase hardware. "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_ability,_to_each_according_to_his_need" rel="nofollow">From each according to his ability, to each according to his need</a>" isn't going to cut it on a scale big enough to matter in research.David.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14498131502038331594noreply@blogger.com