BitShares Forum

Main => General Discussion => Topic started by: blahblah7up on January 16, 2015, 08:37:30 pm

Title: Enhancing Bitshares' Security
Post by: blahblah7up on January 16, 2015, 08:37:30 pm
Could a mechanism be put in place which temporarily transfers blocksigning power to additional clients on the network in the case of a coordinated attack against the delegates?  Could these additional clients be somehow incentivized to participate?

This would enhance the security of the Bitshares' network and improve upon what Stan calls "sufficiently decentralized".
Title: Re: Enhancing Bitshares' Security
Post by: toast on January 16, 2015, 08:45:38 pm
So, more delegates?
Title: Re: Enhancing Bitshares' Security
Post by: blahblah7up on January 17, 2015, 01:03:25 pm
I was thinking of a much smaller incentive.  Something like 5% asset yields instead of a default 4% (as a hypothetical scenario) for those who leave their client connected to the network.  If these clients were allowed to sign blocks in the case of an attack, it would provide redundancy.  The network design would be more robust.
Title: Re: Enhancing Bitshares' Security
Post by: Thom on January 17, 2015, 04:52:28 pm
Just thinking out loud here, and this may have already been thought of and dismissed.

Addressing both decentralization and disbursement of new coins, why not make every single node in the network a block producer chosen at random? The owner of that node gets to keep the new coins and select the next block producer at random. Only one node at a time will be selected as a block signer / producer, and which node chosen is non-deterministic.

The algorithm that decides which node is next may be the Achilles heel of this idea; it may just not be possible to create such an algorithm in a secure, truly random way. There would have to be some way to insure the code of every node does not get corrupted. It's integrity must somehow be guaranteed, since the security of the network resides in the security of every node.

If there were a way to create a unique mathematical signature of the code and the machine it ran on that could be easy to verify but difficult to create and counterfeit this may be possible?? Might it be possible through a similar manor to how the earliest blocks of the blockchain become more secure as new blocks are added?

Like I said, just thinking out loud.

If it were possible, it would incentivize everyone to participate as it would constitute a type of lottery.
Title: Re: Enhancing Bitshares' Security
Post by: toast on January 17, 2015, 11:12:24 pm
Just thinking out loud here, and this may have already been thought of and dismissed.

Addressing both decentralization and disbursement of new coins, why not make every single node in the network a block producer chosen at random? The owner of that node gets to keep the new coins and select the next block producer at random. Only one node at a time will be selected as a block signer / producer, and which node chosen is non-deterministic.

The algorithm that decides which node is next may be the Achilles heel of this idea; it may just not be possible to create such an algorithm in a secure, truly random way. There would have to be some way to insure the code of every node does not get corrupted. It's integrity must somehow be guaranteed, since the security of the network resides in the security of every node.

If there were a way to create a unique mathematical signature of the code and the machine it ran on that could be easy to verify but difficult to create and counterfeit this may be possible?? Might it be possible through a similar manor to how the earliest blocks of the blockchain become more secure as new blocks are added?

Like I said, just thinking out loud.

If it were possible, it would incentivize everyone to participate as it would constitute a type of lottery.

This reads a lot like:
"Why don't we just create a new car engine which has better gas mileage?"
"Why don't we just come up with an investment scheme where we outperform the market?"

If you have solutions, please enlighten us!