waxwing on Nostr: Got on a sidetrack this morning and found this interesting little paper from 2004: ...
Got on a sidetrack this morning and found this interesting little paper from 2004: "why proof of work doesn't work".
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/proofwork.pdf
(from a quick read of the conclusion, their argument doesn't appear that strong, but the basic idea is well known - attackers are prepared to spend a ton more to specialize, than ordinary users are, etc. etc.)
This paper might seem quaint to Bitcoiners who are convinced that PoW *does* work, but bear in mind: they are thinking of the spam problem specifically, and so their analysis could still be very relevant today, e.g. in the case of using PoW for systems like Tor or Lightning.
Interesting tidbit, the first author Ben Laurie is the guy, iirc, that invented "Lucre" an ecash system that is an early precursor of privacypass and cashu.
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rnc1/proofwork.pdf
(from a quick read of the conclusion, their argument doesn't appear that strong, but the basic idea is well known - attackers are prepared to spend a ton more to specialize, than ordinary users are, etc. etc.)
This paper might seem quaint to Bitcoiners who are convinced that PoW *does* work, but bear in mind: they are thinking of the spam problem specifically, and so their analysis could still be very relevant today, e.g. in the case of using PoW for systems like Tor or Lightning.
Interesting tidbit, the first author Ben Laurie is the guy, iirc, that invented "Lucre" an ecash system that is an early precursor of privacypass and cashu.