101 sats \ 6 replies \ @tomlaies 18 Jun \ on: Foundry won against AntPool's competing block by switching to their own block bitcoin
I don't understand why people are surprised by this. This is called "selfish mining":
  • has been happening in Bitcoin for many years now
  • has been theorized before it first happened
  • compatible according to protocol
  • is a good thing, indicative of a good and healthy mining industry with entrepreneurship and risktaking
  • not a big deal
write
preview
121 sats \ 0 replies \ @petertodd 19 Jun
This is called "selfish mining":
No it's not.
This is how Bitcoin Core nodes have always worked. Miners don't know how much hash power is working on their block. So the obvious thing to do is to just work on extending the chain you have and hope that's what everyone else is working on too.
reply
10 sats \ 4 replies \ @02bcd3eeb0 18 Jun
indicative of a good and healthy mining industry
Lol. Do you even hear how ridiculous you sound? In a good and healthy mining industry selfish mining would be a complete waste of resources. It happens precisely because the industry is so unhealthy that there are only 2 entities producing block templates.
reply
0 sats \ 3 replies \ @tomlaies 18 Jun
Those are not my words. It's the consensus judgement by cryptographers from the day selfish mining was thought of before it even happened for the first time ever.
It's what happens in free market competition. Free markets are a self-balancing system. Inefficiencies create incentives for people (=smaller miners) to arbitrage them (=switching pools)
reply
21 sats \ 2 replies \ @petertodd 19 Jun
It's the consensus judgement by cryptographers from the day selfish mining was thought of before it even happened for the first time ever.
Lol, no. Selfish mining was actually discovered by bitcoiners, and is one of the reasons we didn't increase the block size. Markers are not always "self-balancing systems". Winner take all markets are extremely harmful for decentralization.
reply
1 sat \ 0 replies \ @joda 19 Jun
Can you say more vis-a-vis block size?
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @tomlaies 19 Jun
Markers are not always "self-balancing systems".
pool allocates resources inefficient ➡️ miners switch to more efficient pool⤵️ ⬆️ miners switch to more efficient pool ⬅️ other pool dabbles in selfish mining
Capitalism takes taking Ws, Commies like Peter Todd keeps taking Ls
reply