[Cryptography] Satoshi's Trump Card

[Ray Dillinger]

What puzzles me about these discussions is that people assume, with no
evidence and apparently for no reason, that Satoshi would choose to play
his (or her, or their) so-called "Trump Card" in some way that agrees
with their own particular agenda.

Satoshi, as I recall, was very responsive to design feedback. When Hal
pointed out potential problems with the scripting language, the
scripting language got changed, immediately.  I remember saying to both
of them I thought they didn't need to cut that much from the scripting
language (ie, that they could afford to include more of FORTH). But then
Hal outlined a DoS based on the cost of key checking (which I had
underestimated, badly) and all the flow-of-control stuff stayed cut.

The point of this is, right now, Satoshi would be looking at Bitcoin's
current problems and evaluating the available options.  There's no
reason to think that a prejudice in favor of "NO CHANGE" would be
considered to be the correct response.  The Satoshi I remember would be
evaluating the alternatives pretty much objectively, and relating them
to the current problems rather than the problems faced by the original
design.  And might choose either, based on its merits.  NIH wasn't part
of how he (or she, or they) worked.

And anyway, the use of this particular so-called "Trump Card" in this
particular way wouldn't have the effect the OP thinks it would have.
They are considering the incentives of the users, when in fact the fate
of a block chain is determined by the incentives of the miners.

The fact that the interests of miners and users are not necessarily
aligned, I have always regarded as one of Bitcoin's flaws.  It opens the
potential for mining that is completely useless to the users, or the
possibility of giving miners incentives to cooperate with DoS attacks
against the users, etc. The block chain records many blocks that come
from miners apparently indifferent or malicious to the users' interests.
They are empty blocks more than five minutes after the previous block,
at times when transactions were averaging more than thirty a minute.

				Bear

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