Oh, I get it - when the client generates the block, it includes the transaction for the generation bounty in the block, so that transaction can pay out to anyone, and this is valid so long as the total payout = 50 BTC (or whatever the bounty is at the time) + transaction fees. Right?
Would it be possible for a miner to create extremely erratic payouts (i.e. distribute the bounty to a million addresses) as a vector of attack? Or would the block be rejected in that particular case for being over 1MB?
Would it be possible for a miner to create extremely erratic payouts (i.e. distribute the bounty to a million addresses) as a vector of attack? Or would the block be rejected in that particular case for being over 1MB?
Right. The generation is just an input to a transaction. The value of the input is found by the block subsidy + fees. The outputs follow the normal transaction rules.
The generator could easily create a giant generation transaction with tons of garbage outputs. You don't even need to pay out to the outputs: 0-value outputs are valid. The block size is limited to 1MB, though.
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