
Tezos: A Self-Amending Crypto-Ledger [pdf] - gojomo
http://tezos.com/
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titanomachy
Proof of Stake seems like an interesting idea. I've often wondered if
bitcoin's proof-of-work verification model would remain viable as the currency
reaches the end of its generation phase and the incentives for hashing become
negligible. Off-chain transactions will become more and more popular, which
not only draws revenue away from the hashers but also undermines the
consistency of the system.

Tezos' second innovation, its ability to incorporate changes to the protocol
without forking, is also interesting but raises some questions. If I
understand correctly, stakeholder consensus is required to integrate a change
to the protocol. The author gives an example where a developer attempting to
remove this safety mechanism would fail because the stakeholders, recognizing
that the change is not in their interest, would reject it -- analogous to
voters rejecting a proposal to eliminate democracy, I suppose.

However, this seems to rest on the assumption that a majority of stakeholders
are familiar enough with the protocol to recognize which changes are
beneficial to them and which aren't, in situations less obvious than the above
example. Further, they must be willing to put in some time and effort to
understand the amendment and cast their vote. My hypothesis is that this would
lead to a disproportionate concentration of power in the hands of those who
control large amounts of currency, precisely the problem that PoS purports to
avoid.

The entities controlling large amounts of currency have plenty of incentive to
understand the protocol well and vote on every proposed amendment. The average
user, who controls a small wallet and uses the currency for day-to-day
transactions, has much less incentive: the average user of HTTPS does not feel
the need to educate themselves on the underlying technology, nor is the
average user of dollars familiar with macroeconomic policy. So the amendments
which pass "review" will be the ones most favourable to larger entities, even
if these entities control less than half the actual currency. I don't buy into
the idea that those with monopolies have little incentive to abuse them: even
if a protocol change will eventually alienate users and devalue the currency,
the controlling entities may still choose to implement it for short-term
profit, undermining the currency in the process.

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jlrubin
This seems like an amazing development.

If I read it correctly, Tezos aims to decentralize the core protocol
development by allowing forks to coexist and peacefully merge in any
innovations.

It is also in OCaml, which is great for the robustness of the code developed.
Much less scary than C/C++. Tezos even goes to the point of suggesting formal
proofs of correctness, using COQ proof assistant.

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l_m_g
Tezos does aim to decentralize core development, but the emphasis is on
allowing stakeholders to coordinate on forks rather than having forks coexist.

The latter possibility is very interesting and can be implemented within
Tezos, but it will require a lot of forethought.

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comboy
Very nice write-up on where are we standing currently, but that's pretty much
it.

General idea seems great, but there's not much more than hand waving about it.

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l_m_g
Hi comboy,

Thanks, the motivation part does try to describe where we currently stand.
However, if you look through the "Abstract Ledger" section, you'll see a
specific description of how a meta-ledger can be achieved.

A more specific white-paper will be released in the next few days.

Regarding implementation, the meta-shell currently works with a toy protocol,
and I'm working on completing the seed protocol.

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simondlr
The name is most likely a reference to Leah McGrath Goodman (who, if you don't
know, wrote the piece on Dorian Nakamoto in Newsweek).

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jlrubin
Yup -- this definitely feels like a dig at her. Who invented Tezos? Why, of
course it was Leah! After all, what's in a name?

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jaekwon
Is there an implementation in the works? Also, if you're the author, find me
on #tendermint on freenode. There are some things about PoS that I'd like to
share with you.

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conchy
who wrote this, Satoshi?

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AlyssaRowan
I can neither confirm nor deny that. ;-)

More pertinent question: Does it matter?

