The Mini-Blockchain Project
What is this project all about?The goal of this project is to implement a new crypto-currency protocol designed to solve the "blockchain bloat" problem once and for all by replacing the full blockchain with a finite "mini-blockchain". Such a system would offer many benefits including consistently fast synchronization times, much more block space, faster transactions, and lower fees. Certainly not an easy problem to solve, but if it could be solved we are looking at truly new and unique improvements over the Bitcoin protocol.
We now believe that this problem finally has been cracked. The concept and technical details of the proposal can be found in the
white paper (a little outdated now) and the
project wiki. This new scheme has been analyzed by many intelligent people and we haven't found any major flaws. After a considerable amount of feedback, myself and several others are convinced the scheme is viable and we want to attempt an implementation.
Our objectives and approachThe main objective of this project is to bring together many new ideas and concepts while staying as true to Bitcoin as possible. This project will attempt to minimize and exclude any controversial proposals and ideas but remain open to new and experimental proposals which we believe could enhance the final system. We aim to take the safe and trusted route ever possible and avoid over-complicating the scheme by bringing together too many different ideas.
The main focus of this project is to implement the mini-blockchain protocol and show that it works before we do anything else. If or when that goal is achieved we will start looking at incorporating several other experimental concepts which have the potential to provide an array of new features and benefits. Some examples of such concepts include
secure 0-confirmation transactions based on a
withdrawal limit system and a
dynamic max block size.
Since we are trying to avoid any controversial and unnecessary complications, that means no pre-mine and probably no PoS integration. The PoS system is controversial in a way because it appears to make the rich richer over time and the benefits of such a system really aren't observable for a long time anyway. Not to mention the mini-blockchain proposal is already complicated enough as it is, keeping things simple is the key here.
The next generation of crypto-currencyWhat is the next generation of crypto-currency and what separates this project from any other alt coin? Most of you will agree that 95% of the alt coins out there are essentially pump and dump scams which offer nothing new or useful. I would personally say there are less than half a dozen alt coins which shouldn't be labeled scam coins; Namecoin, Devcoin, PPCoin, Novacoin, and Litecoin, and perhaps 1 or 2 other alt coins. I'm not so sure about PPCoin and Novacoin but they do offer new PoS features.
Litecoin doesn't really offer much beyond faster block confirmation speeds and scrypt-based mining, but since it was one of the first alt coins to offer these new features it has gained a genuine foothold in the crypto-currency market. Not only does this project offer a new coin with unseen features, but those new features are not small or trivial. Imagine always being able to download the blockchain within seconds or minutes as well as significantly faster transaction speeds.
Why am I making such a big deal of this? Well consider threads like this:
WARNING! Bitcoin will soon block small transaction outputsNew video: Why the blocksize limit keeps Bitcoin free and decentralizedAll this concern over max block sizes, the SD "spam dust", the transaction capacity reaching its limit, all of this is nicely solved with a mini-blockchain + account tree implementation. Now I'm not saying Bitcoin is obsolete or outdated or that this new scheme will replace it, Bitcoin still has certain advantages over the mini-blockchain scheme and vice versa. However if this scheme turns out to work it does have the potential to seriously compete with bitcoin.
It was only a matter of time before someone was able to improve on the Bitcoin protocol and offer a new coin with highly desirable advantages over the original protocol, but I don't think that will mean the original will ever die out. Just because this scheme can offer more scalability and speed doesn't make it better as a tool for storing wealth. It does sort of make it better as a currency though, which is really what we should be aiming for I believe.
So how will the project be organized?See:
[BOUNTY] $20,000 Mini-Blockchain Implementation
Project Address: 1AZjrg6h9nfvFt16kaszLTJkQi13kMwZz2