Title: Is approval by miners needed to switch to proof-of-stake? Post by: intrazer on November 25, 2013, 09:33:18 PM Mining uses quite a lot of energy, this will show up as transactions fees, a system using proof-of-stake could thus have lower transaction fees than bitcoins. ASIC mining is centralizing mining. It's getting to the point where mining can only be done by large corporations with lots of money to buy huge amount of chips, or even develop chips themselves to stay in the game. It's much easier for governments to force a few large companies to change bitcoin, than many individuals, and its also much easier to attack or try to shut down.
If, at some point in the future, those potential problems was starting to be seen as real problems, and the majority of bitcoin users agreed it would be a good idea to change. Would it be possible to switch bitcoin to proof-of-stake or others alternatives without the consent of the miners, who would no doubt like to protect their investments in hardware, and would likely try to stop such a change? Title: Re: Is approval by miners needed to switch to proof-of-stake? Post by: PenAndPaper on November 25, 2013, 09:38:10 PM Obviously the chain is going to fork if such change ever gets implemented. But out of all things i don't think this will ever happen...
Title: Re: Is approval by miners needed to switch to proof-of-stake? Post by: Impaler on November 25, 2013, 11:10:04 PM Holders of BTC have no influence in a fork, it's the EXCHANGERS of BTC that determine which Fork will have value. If Gox and other exchanges say that one fork will be exchanged for dollars and the other won't you can forget about that other fork having any value, and given that at the moment of the fork everyone would have equal coins in each fork everyone would have a reason to accept the exchanges decision.
Title: Re: Is approval by miners needed to switch to proof-of-stake? Post by: ixne on November 25, 2013, 11:16:43 PM Mining uses quite a lot of energy, this will show up as transactions fees Wrong. If mining takes up too much energy, mining will become unprofitable, some inefficient miners will quit, and difficulty will fall until energy costs are in line with mining profits. You've put the cart before the horse here. Title: Re: Is approval by miners needed to switch to proof-of-stake? Post by: intrazer on November 25, 2013, 11:37:09 PM You need an economic majority to make huge changes. It doesn't really matter what the miners do, if they make changes that holders of bitcoin do not agree with, they will soon find themselves mining worthless coins. That's good to hear. At least miners can't hijack the system then.https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Economic_majority Title: Re: Is approval by miners needed to switch to proof-of-stake? Post by: intrazer on November 25, 2013, 11:59:07 PM Mining uses quite a lot of energy, this will show up as transactions fees Wrong. If mining takes up too much energy, mining will become unprofitable, some inefficient miners will quit, and difficulty will fall until energy costs are in line with mining profits. You've put the cart before the horse here. |