First provably safe federated Byzantine agreement protocol

[Come-from-Beyond]

https://forum.stanford.edu/events/2015davidmarzieresinfo.php

This talk presents the Stellar consensus protocol, the first provably safe federated Byzantine agreement protocol. Unlike prior Byzantine agreement protocols, which presuppose unanimous agreement on system membership, a federated protocol allows the set of participating organizations to grow organically over time. Using consensus, organizations cement one another's commitments into a public history that bad actors cannot rewrite or fork. Applications of the technology include timestamping documents, preventing certificate authorities from issuing fraudulent duplicate certificates, and efficiently securing transaction settlement in digital markets.
 
The Stellar protocol gives individual participants control over whom to trust and how much to trust them. It follows the paradigm established by Internet routing, in which an organization's importance is determined not by any central authority but by individual, pairwise peering arrangements. Compared to other decentralized consensus mechanisms, such as the proof-of-work and proof-of-stake schemes popular in digital currencies, federated consensus decouples trust from resource ownership and requires no assumptions about the rational behavior of attackers. The protocol presented forms the backbone of the next-generation Stellar financial network, a decentralized digital marketplace in which people can efficiently exchange currencies and send money.

Any comments?

[DooMAD]

Any comments?

Just that this probably belongs in the Altcoins subforum and that I still wouldn't touch Ripple or Stellar with someone else's bargepole.  Just can't seem to shake the shady impression I get from them.  Plus the fact that their whole approach is to jump in bed with the banksters first and worry about what's best for everyone else later.  Yuck.

[Come-from-Beyond]

Just that this probably belongs in the Altcoins subforum and that I still wouldn't touch Ripple or Stellar with someone else's bargepole.  Just can't seem to shake the shady impression I get from them.  Plus the fact that their whole approach is to jump in bed with the banksters first and worry about what's best for everyone else later.  Yuck.

It doesn't belong to Altcoins subforum. They say that Bitcoin security is weak because it's unknown who miners and what their intents are.

[juju]

Just that this probably belongs in the Altcoins subforum and that I still wouldn't touch Ripple or Stellar with someone else's bargepole.  Just can't seem to shake the shady impression I get from them.  Plus the fact that their whole approach is to jump in bed with the banksters first and worry about what's best for everyone else later.  Yuck.

It doesn't belong to Altcoins subforum. They say that Bitcoin security is weak because it's unknown who miners and what their intents are.

I actually think it should reside in the Altcoin Subforum as well TBH. Stellar is a clone of the Ripple Source code with modifications, just like Altcoins: Litecoin/Darkcoin etc.

Their is no way that storing value on Stellars Network is more Secure than the storing that value on the Bitcoin network currently. The cost to weaken Stellars Network and the cost to weaken Bitcoins network are not comparable. Stellar's Coin Distribution is a bit better than I actually thought it would, after looking at their information online. However their currency appears too be centrally distributed and determined by some central authority other than 6% of the currency. (50% for the world via the direct signup educational program, 25% for nonprofits to reach underserved populations via the increased access program, 20% for the bitcoin program, 5% for operational costs and their is a fixed 1% inflation rate so your Stellar depreciates in value overtime.)

I think Doomad is right, we are just seeing 'Altcoins' with larger funding these days. I remember a year or so back these altcoins did-int have any companies/money behind them and most petered out quickly. I have a sinking feeling we are just now starting to see some of these massive overfunded scam coins come to fruition, Paycoin was a recent one I saw some newbies jump into thinking that its something innovative/new.

Another piece of information to anyone still reading, Stellar is created by an ex Mt. Gox employee, who knows, with Stripes involvement/funding it might actually be a moderately successful altcoin and end up like: Litecoin, Monero, Ripple, etc. and satisfy some need.

Edit: I had no idea Stellar was a fork of Ripple, thought it was a fork of Bitcoin.

[Come-from-Beyond]

I actually think it should reside in the Altcoin Subforum as well TBH.

It's not about Stellar. "First provably safe" implies that security of Bitcoin is questioned. Anyway, I noted your opinion, next time I'll be more explicit in an OP.

[Beliathon]

Any comments?

1. It's not the first of anything, it's the 600-somethingth altcoin.

2. Miner anonymity is a security strength, it's by design! Stellar is reinventing the wheel by making it square. Awful.

3. This belongs in the altcoins subsection.

Plus the fact that their whole approach is to jump in bed with the banksters first and worry about what's best for everyone else later.  Yuck.

This!

[juju]

I actually think it should reside in the Altcoin Subforum as well TBH.

It's not about Stellar. "First provably safe" implies that security of Bitcoin is questioned. Anyway, I noted your opinion, next time I'll be more explicit in an OP.

If its not about Stellar, can you make sure to remove the Bright Red Text marked "Stellar" Seems like your advertising that consensus protocol over Bitcoins.

[Come-from-Beyond]

If its not about Stellar, can you make sure to remove the Bright Red Text marked "Stellar" Seems like your advertising that consensus protocol over Bitcoins.

I emphasized it intentionally so readers won't be confused by thinking that it's about Bitcoin.

[R2D221]

If its not about Stellar, can you make sure to remove the Bright Red Text marked "Stellar" Seems like your advertising that consensus protocol over Bitcoins.

I emphasized it intentionally so readers won't be confused by thinking that it's about Bitcoin.

So it's NOT about Bitcoin. It doesn't belong in the Bitcoin Discussion subforum.

[Beliathon]

If its not about Stellar, can you make sure to remove the Bright Red Text marked "Stellar" Seems like your advertising that consensus protocol over Bitcoins.

I emphasized it intentionally so readers won't be confused by thinking that it's about Bitcoin.

So it's NOT about Bitcoin. It doesn't belong in the Bitcoin Discussion subforum.

Yep, flag it for the mods.

[Tobo]

Any comments?

Is Stellar using a decentralized consensus mechanism? What I heard is that Stellar is distributed but decentralized.

[Come-from-Beyond]

So it's NOT about Bitcoin. It doesn't belong in the Bitcoin Discussion subforum.

I explained why it's about Bitcoin. I don't have ELI5 version, sorry.

[Come-from-Beyond]

Is Stellar using a decentralized consensus mechanism? What I heard is that Stellar is distributed but decentralized.

Tell me the definition of "decentralized" and I'll answer your question. Different people have different meaning of "decentralized" and quite often confuse it with "distributed".

[Lauda]

It doesn't belong to Altcoins subforum. They say that Bitcoin security is weak because it's unknown who miners and what their intents are.

Why would this surprise you? Researchers that are influenced by the government say that Bitcoin security is weak. We lose quite a nice amount of decentralization if we knew who mines and why.
No, I don't think that this should be in the altcoin section either. Obviously it's a subtle attempt at undermining the security of Bitcoin.

[Tobo]

Is Stellar using a decentralized consensus mechanism? What I heard is that Stellar is distributed but decentralized.

Tell me the definition of "decentralized" and I'll answer your question. Different people have different meaning of "decentralized" and quite often confuse it with "distributed".

In a decentralized p2p network, every node is equal in term of right and authorization and no node is superior to other nodes. In a distributed network, some nodes are special and have more right and authorization than other nodes.

[biggus dickus]

Is Stellar using a decentralized consensus mechanism? What I heard is that Stellar is distributed but decentralized.

Tell me the definition of "decentralized" and I'll answer your question. Different people have different meaning of "decentralized" and quite often confuse it with "distributed".

In a decentralized p2p network, every node is equal in term of right and authorization and no node is superior to other nodes. In a distributed network, some nodes are special and have more right and authorization than other nodes.

There was a fork about half a year ago and the devs denied anyone else the opportunity to run a node to deal with it. Although I don't know what happened afterwards it was a centralized network for a while.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/113073/stellar-switches-to-centralized-system-after-node-issue-causes-accidental-fork

[Come-from-Beyond]

In a decentralized p2p network, every node is equal in term of right and authorization and no node is superior to other nodes. In a distributed network, some nodes are special and have more right and authorization than other nodes.

According to your definition Bitcoin is not decentralized, it's distributed. There are nodes that mine bitcoins and nodes that don't. The former can decide if one particular transaction can be included into the next block while the latter can't.

[markm]

What did they change about Ripple that makes this one provably safe but Ripple not provably safe?

That is, what is the added safety feature that makes it safer than Ripple?

Or are they really saying that Ripple's protocol is provably safe so theirs also is?

-MarkM-

[Come-from-Beyond]

I noticed that the thread was moved to Altcoins. Not surprising, the moderators always do their best to keep critics of Bitcoin away of the main page...

[Come-from-Beyond]

What did they change about Ripple that makes this one provably safe but Ripple not provably safe?

That is, what is the added safety feature that makes it safer than Ripple?

Or are they really saying that Ripple's protocol is provably safe so theirs also is?

-MarkM-

I don't know the details. But I liked how they striked Bitcoin back by claiming that they are more decentralized than Bitcoin because in Bitcoin we can't choose who the validators are. An average bitcoiners actually has no a choice at all, he was just lucky when Deepbit and GHash.IO didn't abuse their power when they were controlling 51% of it.