Quotable Satoshi on Nostr: The proof-of-work also solves the problem of determining representation in majority ...
The proof-of-work also solves the problem of determining representation in majority decision making. If the majority were based on one-IP-address-one-vote, it could be subverted by anyone able to allocate many IPs. Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote. The majority decision is represented by the longest chain, which has the greatest proof-of-work effort invested in it. If a majority of CPU power is controlled by honest nodes, the honest chain will grow the fastest and outpace any competing chains. To modify a past block, an attacker would have to redo the proof-of-work of the block and all blocks after it and then catch up with and surpass the work of the honest nodes. We will show later that the probability of a slower attacker catching up diminishes exponentially as subsequent blocks are added.
Published at
2024-05-16 02:21:02Event JSON
{
"id": "b5566e29297008917f2e4de1dc76b25c1ae3ee2f5a15103b5fe8a61407a85bae",
"pubkey": "87570647ca3b7549e66cb6c4bb8d197f5bc91de73b58eb1ade78c8ddd5fec7eb",
"created_at": 1715818862,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [],
"content": "The proof-of-work also solves the problem of determining representation in majority decision making. If the majority were based on one-IP-address-one-vote, it could be subverted by anyone able to allocate many IPs. Proof-of-work is essentially one-CPU-one-vote. The majority decision is represented by the longest chain, which has the greatest proof-of-work effort invested in it. If a majority of CPU power is controlled by honest nodes, the honest chain will grow the fastest and outpace any competing chains. To modify a past block, an attacker would have to redo the proof-of-work of the block and all blocks after it and then catch up with and surpass the work of the honest nodes. We will show later that the probability of a slower attacker catching up diminishes exponentially as subsequent blocks are added.",
"sig": "4ae7a38139ddd8bf441233865b0c16b8609c3c7761641e54d13dc6d262bcd812386fa9bfed4eb68a409f6933ae73b268a700e41edcc8ec090c6070956bd8b8c3"
}