So it looks like the "trusted nodes" are awarded 3.2 coins for a difficulty 1 hash.
So far in 14 hours that is 24K coins.
Who are the trusted nodes?
Why are they awarded coins for such a computationally easy block?
{
"hash" : "00000cba04d6531626328dc5c602d537198bf06fbdeefc8928b291c6a65dd786",
"version" : 1,
"prev_block" : "000000097f6c9e2946ae31319b47ecfde6324e5f0ea92951761baf6fcac7f552",
"mrkl_root" : "d9a9ed58a027522c1be38bc18dbd5be075c710c86df4c1f02770c505dd970363",
"time" : 1318344731,
"bits" : 511705087,
"blocknum" : 15908,
"nonce1" : 2061,
"nonce2" : 28764,
"nonce3" : 0,
"nonce4" : 0,
"n_tx" : 2,
"size" : 465,
"tx" : [
{
"hash" : "79fcfa7d323904ace5e0d0470e63f771ef9fcf266904376a300365ffca383818",
"version" : 1,
"lock_time" : 0,
"size" : 135,
"in" : [
{
"prev_out" : {
"hash" : "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000",
"n" : 4294967295
},
"coinbase" : "044350463002243e"
}
],
"out" : [
{
"value" : 3.20020000,
"scriptPubKey" : "04180c4694b407675b133fa4d67c2640d8e8e7345e4e14b6c45fa632c1480186e3a9e6d644dfceee5262e7455f88cdb823e4f4b2984f7878f9fa62fb2489df6c60 OP_CHECKSIG"
}
]
},
{
"hash" : "4cc10f07736f7e1e2635e09aec70f3169cb6c495efe618d1f34c9befc50671c8",
"version" : 1,
"lock_time" : 0,
"size" : 201,
"in" : [
{
"prev_out" : {
"hash" : "968ccce3283a2377518d54d7fffe09fd1aedd22226d0bca62fe01c709c59d5ea",
"n" : 0
},
"scriptSig" : "3046022100e6bfae08d185fa9910b4d51c2a6ad8272d6bbc38203ee3a30fb2ddc67970d4d6022100a1df3a487d5e76ffcd2bac99c9db9851cc78f61a632018a054717d8e3d01b87401"
}
],
"out" : [
{
"value" : 1188151.25950000,
"scriptPubKey" : "0484e16a91b5d30f474856e5b6093fb43f0223a4013695c0ad2b04a2897b6137cd9fff4324821630a20db1a4c201a40e0fc98738cd73c0bc4cc969650abb6298ac OP_CHECKSIG"
}
]
}
],
"mrkl_tree" : [
"79fcfa7d323904ace5e0d0470e63f771ef9fcf266904376a300365ffca383818",
"4cc10f07736f7e1e2635e09aec70f3169cb6c495efe618d1f34c9befc50671c8",
"d9a9ed58a027522c1be38bc18dbd5be075c710c86df4c1f02770c505dd970363"
]
}
With increasing difficulty the "advantage" the trusted nodes gain increases.
For example right now difficulty is 1500 so regular nodes need to work 1500x harder to gain 10x the reward. A 150x disadvantage.
However block times are still 6s so difficulty should be 30x higher. When difficulty is 450,000 regular nodes will need to work 450,000 times harder to gain 10x the reward a 45,000x disadvantage.
Who/what determines who gets the highly advantageous position of being a trusted node?
Why are they overcompensated for their workload?
What happens to the network if the trusted nodes fail (DDOS)?