Microsoft Researchers Suggest Method to Improve Bitcoin Transaction Propagation - page 7.

nmat

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Quote from: notme on November 12, 2011, 10:51:28 PM

They start with the assumption only miners relay transactions.

That's exactly the opposite of what they wrote. What they are trying to improve is this: every node relays transactions, but only miners get paid (i.e. there is no incentive to relay a transaction. Actually, transaction fees are an incentive not to relay transactions)

rjk

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1ngldh

Quote from: notme on November 12, 2011, 10:51:28 PM

Quote from: nmat on November 12, 2011, 10:46:42 PM

Quote

Bitcoin, which has been getting a large amount of public attention over the last year, represents a radical new approach to monetary systems which has appeared in policy discussions and in the popular press. Its cryptographic fundamentals have largely held up even as its usage has become increasingly widespread.

We ﬁnd, however, that it exhibits a fundamental problem of a diﬀerent nature, based on how its incentives are structured. We propose a modiﬁcation to the protocol that can ﬁx this problem.

Bitcoin relies on a peer-to-peer network to track transactions that are performed with the currency. For this purpose, every transaction a node learns about should be transmitted to its neighbors in the network. As the protocol is currently deﬁned and implemented, it does not provide an incentive for nodes to broadcast transactions they are aware of. In fact, it provides a strong incentive not to do so. Our solution is to augment the protocol with a scheme that rewards information propagation

Paper: http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/156072/bitcoin.pdf
Source: http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2011/11/microsoft-researchers-suggest-method-to.html

They start with the assumption only miners relay transactions. They use this to attempt to convince the reader of a need for their change. Classic Microsoft "embrace and extend" where the extension is just there to break compatibility.

I don't see that assumption when reading the paper. Did you read it or are you going by the very short snippet at the beginning of the thread?

notme

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Quote from: nmat on November 12, 2011, 10:46:42 PM

Quote

Bitcoin, which has been getting a large amount of public attention over the last year, represents a radical new approach to monetary systems which has appeared in policy discussions and in the popular press. Its cryptographic fundamentals have largely held up even as its usage has become increasingly widespread.

We ﬁnd, however, that it exhibits a fundamental problem of a diﬀerent nature, based on how its incentives are structured. We propose a modiﬁcation to the protocol that can ﬁx this problem.

Bitcoin relies on a peer-to-peer network to track transactions that are performed with the currency. For this purpose, every transaction a node learns about should be transmitted to its neighbors in the network. As the protocol is currently deﬁned and implemented, it does not provide an incentive for nodes to broadcast transactions they are aware of. In fact, it provides a strong incentive not to do so. Our solution is to augment the protocol with a scheme that rewards information propagation

Paper: http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/156072/bitcoin.pdf
Source: http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2011/11/microsoft-researchers-suggest-method-to.html

They start with the assumption only miners relay transactions. They use this to attempt to convince the reader of a need for their change. Classic Microsoft "embrace and extend" where the extension is just there to break compatibility.

nmat

hero member

Activity: 602

Merit: 502

Quote

Bitcoin, which has been getting a large amount of public attention over the last year, represents a radical new approach to monetary systems which has appeared in policy discussions and in the popular press. Its cryptographic fundamentals have largely held up even as its usage has become increasingly widespread.

We ﬁnd, however, that it exhibits a fundamental problem of a diﬀerent nature, based on how its incentives are structured. We propose a modiﬁcation to the protocol that can ﬁx this problem.

Bitcoin relies on a peer-to-peer network to track transactions that are performed with the currency. For this purpose, every transaction a node learns about should be transmitted to its neighbors in the network. As the protocol is currently deﬁned and implemented, it does not provide an incentive for nodes to broadcast transactions they are aware of. In fact, it provides a strong incentive not to do so. Our solution is to augment the protocol with a scheme that rewards information propagation

Paper at: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=156072
Source: http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2011/11/microsoft-researchers-suggest-method-to.html
Simplified summary: http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/simplified-summary-of-microsoft-researchs-bitcoin-paper-on-incentivizing-transaction-propagation/

Topic: Microsoft Researchers Suggest Method to Improve Bitcoin Transaction Propagation - page 7. (Read 17557 times)