I'd imagine that you'd want a lot of people on the network, so there needs to be a good incentive to join (extra $$$ in fees, I'd imagine).
Charging to access this network, when it's intended to grow, is a difficult thing to implement.
Sounds sort of like a primitive bitcoin payment processor (of course, with faster "hard" confirmation than via/mc/etc), in that I can imagine a variety of providers (MAIT A provides 90% confirmation, but charges ~5%, MAIT B provides 50% confirmation but only charges ~2%, things like that)
Topic: Miner's Alliance for Instant Transactions (Read 856 times)
still just as vulnerable to the Finney attack, unless you require your MAIT to reject new *blocks* that double-spend the transactions they accepted. And this introduces a risk of a fork. So, no.
Merchants don't need 100% assurance that transactions will not be double spent.They need a defined amount of risk so that they can accurately price it.
still just as vulnerable to the Finney attack, unless you require your MAIT to reject new *blocks* that double-spend the transactions they accepted. And this introduces a risk of a fork. So, no.
As the OP said, the MAIT would reject new blocks that double-spend transaction they accepted. That's the only way for the fork to occur. If the MAIT has >50%, then it won't be a hard fork. Therefore, the MAIT should only reject double-spending blocks if the MAIT has >50%.
still just as vulnerable to the Finney attack, unless you require your MAIT to reject new *blocks* that double-spend the transactions they accepted. And this introduces a risk of a fork. So, no.
The miners win as well as they could have a slightly higher fee to provide the service. Even having a separate fee system where costs are shared amongst all members.
They could charge merchants a subscription in order to have access to the network.
Sounds like a great idea.
Would this MAIT be p2p? For example, you would use some API to send your transaction "to the MAIT". Do you mean that you would send it to a miner in the MAIT, who would then propagate to all the other MAIT members, but withhold it from other miners (not MAIT members) so that only the MAIT members would get the fees from it?
Also, when you say that a miner who breaks the rule can never be part of the alliance? How does the rest of the network know which miner mined the block? For example, if I'm part of the alliance, but I mine a block that includes a transaction which overwrites a MAIT-approved transaction and submit it through Tor, how do they know which (if any) MAIT members to kick because they broke the rules?
Would this MAIT be p2p? For example, you would use some API to send your transaction "to the MAIT". Do you mean that you would send it to a miner in the MAIT, who would then propagate to all the other MAIT members, but withhold it from other miners (not MAIT members) so that only the MAIT members would get the fees from it?
Also, when you say that a miner who breaks the rule can never be part of the alliance? How does the rest of the network know which miner mined the block? For example, if I'm part of the alliance, but I mine a block that includes a transaction which overwrites a MAIT-approved transaction and submit it through Tor, how do they know which (if any) MAIT members to kick because they broke the rules?
GReat idea. I love it.
'would it work?'
Of course. Anything will work. You just get to build it first.
Here's a little idea I thought of while day dreaming! 
There seems to be a demand for a solution that provides better security for instant transactions without risking double spends.
Some will even mention LTC as being better in this regard as it has faster confirmation times. 1 confirmation in LTC is still better than 0 confirmations in BTC. There are merchants who want SOME type of assurance until a transaction finds its place in a block, even if it’s not as good as a complete confirmation. Something that assures the merchant that it’s not a double spend or that a double spend will be hard to accomplish. My idea could allow for instant secure transactions without any modification to the protocol at all.
The method I’ve pondered is using a “Miner’s Alliance for Instant Transactions” (MAIT).
If the merchant requires the use of high security instant transactions the merchant requests payment from the customer with a built in fee. This fee is actually set by the MAIT and may not be what the general Bitcoin network is using for fees.
The transaction is then re-sent to the MAIT using an API that:
-sends the 0-confirmation transaction to the MAIT for verification (Is it valid? Is it a double spend of something already out there? Was the proper fee attached for MAIT?)
-responds back with how much of the MAIT has “Ok’ed” the transaction
The merchant then gets back a message saying how much the MAIT has accepted the transaction. The merchant also gets the MAIT promise that any NEW transaction that would be a double spend of the previous transaction will be ignored even if the fees are higher. A miner who breaks this rule can no longer be part of the alliance. It also promises to include the transaction in the next available block if possible. The MAIT does this for slightly higher fees while the merchant gets instant feedback on how likely the transaction will succeed.
IF a large margin of miners and pools join MAIT, then instant transactions will be even more secure then the 1-confirmation in any faster confirming alt coin. If >90% of the network has promised your transaction going through, a double spend becomes even harder to accomplish as the attacker would have very little chance of making a block to double spend.
The miners win as well as they could have a slightly higher fee to provide the service. Even having a separate fee system where costs are shared amongst all members.
Would this work or not?
Another crazy idea would be using the API to get specific addresses for merchants to use so they are not normal fees but a payment to the merchant as well as a payment to the MAIT in the same transaction. The alliance then commits to this transaction EVEN if a double spend happens in another block.
(edit: but probably give up after 1 block or something) The MAIT will ignore the block that does the double spend and since they have a huge majority of the network they can fork the blockchain without the double spend. This would make it against any other miners intrust to ignore or go against a MAIT transaction! It would probably mean that other miners who aren't part of MAIT will have to be careful not to include a double spend, especially one that's in the public MAIT transaction waiting list for inclusion in a block.
There seems to be a demand for a solution that provides better security for instant transactions without risking double spends.
Some will even mention LTC as being better in this regard as it has faster confirmation times. 1 confirmation in LTC is still better than 0 confirmations in BTC. There are merchants who want SOME type of assurance until a transaction finds its place in a block, even if it’s not as good as a complete confirmation. Something that assures the merchant that it’s not a double spend or that a double spend will be hard to accomplish. My idea could allow for instant secure transactions without any modification to the protocol at all.
The method I’ve pondered is using a “Miner’s Alliance for Instant Transactions” (MAIT).
If the merchant requires the use of high security instant transactions the merchant requests payment from the customer with a built in fee. This fee is actually set by the MAIT and may not be what the general Bitcoin network is using for fees.
The transaction is then re-sent to the MAIT using an API that:
-sends the 0-confirmation transaction to the MAIT for verification (Is it valid? Is it a double spend of something already out there? Was the proper fee attached for MAIT?)
-responds back with how much of the MAIT has “Ok’ed” the transaction
The merchant then gets back a message saying how much the MAIT has accepted the transaction. The merchant also gets the MAIT promise that any NEW transaction that would be a double spend of the previous transaction will be ignored even if the fees are higher. A miner who breaks this rule can no longer be part of the alliance. It also promises to include the transaction in the next available block if possible. The MAIT does this for slightly higher fees while the merchant gets instant feedback on how likely the transaction will succeed.
IF a large margin of miners and pools join MAIT, then instant transactions will be even more secure then the 1-confirmation in any faster confirming alt coin. If >90% of the network has promised your transaction going through, a double spend becomes even harder to accomplish as the attacker would have very little chance of making a block to double spend.
The miners win as well as they could have a slightly higher fee to provide the service. Even having a separate fee system where costs are shared amongst all members.
Would this work or not?
Another crazy idea would be using the API to get specific addresses for merchants to use so they are not normal fees but a payment to the merchant as well as a payment to the MAIT in the same transaction. The alliance then commits to this transaction EVEN if a double spend happens in another block.
(edit: but probably give up after 1 block or something) The MAIT will ignore the block that does the double spend and since they have a huge majority of the network they can fork the blockchain without the double spend. This would make it against any other miners intrust to ignore or go against a MAIT transaction! It would probably mean that other miners who aren't part of MAIT will have to be careful not to include a double spend, especially one that's in the public MAIT transaction waiting list for inclusion in a block.
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