[137189] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James A. Donald)
Sun Nov 9 14:15:23 2008
Date: Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:56:53 +1000
From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
To: satoshi@vistomail.com
CC: cryptography@metzdowd.com
In-Reply-To: <CHILKAT-MID-5f8f9f20-db9d-36ee-c584-302e967cc244@server123>
--
Satoshi Nakamoto wrote:
> The proof-of-work chain is the solution to the
> synchronisation problem, and to knowing what the
> globally shared view is without having to trust
> anyone.
>
> A transaction will quickly propagate throughout the
> network, so if two versions of the same transaction
> were reported at close to the same time, the one with
> the head start would have a big advantage in reaching
> many more nodes first. Nodes will only accept the
> first one they see, refusing the second one to arrive,
> so the earlier transaction would have many more nodes
> working on incorporating it into the next
> proof-of-work. In effect, each node votes for its
> viewpoint of which transaction it saw first by
> including it in its proof-of-work effort.
OK, suppose one node incorporates a bunch of
transactions in its proof of work, all of them honest
legitimate single spends and another node incorporates a
slightly different bunch of transactions in its proof of
work, all of them equally honest legitimate single
spends, and both proofs are generated at about the same
time.
What happens then?
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