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Proof of stake is incapable of producing a consensus

yanmaani.github.io

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Re: Proof of stake is incapable of producing a consensus

#821
post #814

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of how you word it, it amounts to the same thing: the protocol and signed, validated history say this happened, now we act like they did not, which is a violation of blockchain integrity.

No, that's not what happened. No history was changed, and nothing was re-validated as you suggest. There was no "violation of blockchain integrity". The only thing that happened was that the upgraded version executed what's known as an "irregular state-change" which moved the ETH from TheDAO's smart contract to a new secure contract. So, it wasn't a roll-back, but a roll-forward, and the change was mined using PoW in…

The hackers ("hackers") made valid transactions.

The hard fork reversed those transactions.

No matter what fancy spin you put on it, that was absolutely a violation of the blockchain's integrity, as it violated the principle that accepted transactions can't be reversed after the fact, even if you call it an "irregular state-change" that just keeps things secure.

You can absolutely defend the position that this was best for the ETH ecosystem. But it was absolutely a reneging on the blockchain rules.

Re: Proof of stake is incapable of producing a consensus

#822

He lost me at the part where he thinks you can sign messages after withdrawing your stake. The whole point of proof of stake is that you can only sign blocks or messages while you have something staked. When you withdraw you are no longer allowed to sign anything. He also didnt need to spend 1000 words going on about the history of bitcoin and proof of work. This is literally just a filler piece with a provocative cl…

> When you withdraw you are no longer allowed to sign anything. But I didn't withdraw my stake. I have a whole chain of blocks saying I never withdrew anything and it's perfectly valid because I signed it, and I still have a stake. Oh, you have another chain that says I did withdraw? Who are we going to believe? Who was first?

On the ethereum chain you get slashed (on both your chains) for signing two messages.
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