Cryptography mailing list
18 writings, oldest first
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party. The paper is available at: http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf The main properties: Double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
Long before the network gets anywhere near as large as that, it would be safe for users to use Simplified Payment Verification (section 8) to check for double spending, which only requires having the chain of block headers, or about 12KB…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
Thanks for bringing up that point. I didn't really make that statement as strong as I could have. The requirement is that the good guys collectively have more CPU power than any single attacker. There would be many smaller zombie farms…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
Yes, but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years. Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
Ray Dillinger: Increasing hardware speed is handled: "To compensate for increasing hardware speed and varying interest in running nodes over time, the proof-of-work difficulty is determined by a moving average targeting an average number…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
Hal Finney wrote: Right, nodes keep transactions in their working set until they get into a block. If a transaction reaches 90% of nodes, then each time a new block is found, it has a 90% chance of being in it. That does not need to be…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
James A. Donald wrote: The proof-of-work chain is the solution to the synchronisation problem, and to knowing what the globally shared view is without having to trust anyone. A transaction will quickly propagate throughout the network, so…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
James A. Donald wrote: They both broadcast their blocks. All nodes receive them and keep both, but only work on the one they received first. We'll suppose exactly half received one first, half the other. In a short time, all the…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
James A. Donald wrote: If you're having trouble with the inflation issue, it's easy to tweak it for transaction fees instead. It's as simple as this: let the output value from any transaction be 1 cent less than the input value. Either…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
James A. Donald wrote: When there are multiple double-spent versions of the same transaction, one and only one will become valid. The receiver of a payment must wait an hour or so before believing that it's valid. The network will resolve…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
James A. Donald wrote: The proof-of-work chain is a solution to the Byzantine Generals' Problem. I'll try to rephrase it in that context. A number of Byzantine Generals each have a computer and want to attack the King's wi-fi by brute…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
Hal Finney wrote: Fortunately, it's only necessary to keep a pending-transaction pool for the current best branch. When a new block arrives for the best branch, ConnectBlock removes the block's transactions from the pending-tx pool. If a…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
I'll try and hurry up and release the sourcecode as soon as possible to serve as a reference to help clear up all these implementation questions. Ray Dillinger (Bear) wrote: Only the buyer signs, and there's no blinding. Identities are…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
Ray Dillinger wrote: Right, it's ECC digital signatures. A new key pair is used for every transaction. It's not pseudonymous in the sense of nyms identifying people, but it is at least a little pseudonymous in that the next action on a…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
James A. Donald wrote: I mean a node only needs the pending-tx pool for the best branch it has. The branch that it currently thinks is the best branch. That's the branch it'll be trying to make a block out of, which is all it needs the…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin v0.1 released
Announcing the first release of Bitcoin, a new electronic cash system that uses a peer-to-peer network to prevent double-spending. It's completely decentralized with no server or central authority. See bitcoin.org for screenshots.…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin v0.1 released
I would be surprised if 10 years from now we're not using electronic currency in some way, now that we know a way to do it that won't inevitably get dumbed down when the trusted third party gets cold feet. It could get started in a narrow…
- Cryptography mailing list (metzdowd)
Bitcoin v0.1 released
Hal Finney wrote: Another factor that would mitigate spam if POW tokens have value: there would be a profit motive for people to set up massive quantities of fake e-mail accounts to harvest POW tokens from spam. They'd essentially be…
