The bitcoin system turns out to be socially useful and valuable, so
that node operators feel that they are making a beneficial contribution
to the world by their efforts (similar to the various "@Home" compute
projects where people volunteer their compute resources for good causes).
In this case it seems to me that simple altruism can suffice to keep the
network running properly.
It's very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it
properly. I'm better with code than with words though.
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Sorry about all the questions, but as I said this does seem to be a
very promising and original idea, and I am looking forward to seeing
how the concept is further developed. It would be helpful to see a more
process oriented description of the idea, with concrete details of the
data structures for the various objects (coins, blocks, transactions),
the data which is included in messages, and algorithmic descriptions
of the procedures for handling the various events which would occur in
this system. You mentioned that you are working on an implementation,
but I think a more formal, text description of the system would be a
helpful next step.
I appreciate your questions. I actually did this kind of backwards. I had to
write all the code before I could convince myself that I could solve every
problem, then I wrote the paper. I think I will be able to release the code
sooner than I could write a detailed spec. You're already right about most of
your assumptions where you filled in the blanks.
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You have an outline
and proposal for such a design, which is a big step
forward, but the devil is in the little details.
I believe I've worked through all those little details over the
last year and a half while coding it, and there were a lot of them.
The functional details are not covered in the paper, but the
sourcecode is coming soon. I sent you the main files.
(available by request at the moment, full release soon)
source
