Gavin Andresen - 2012-09-18 03:25:16

Presumably the fees will become the main driving force behind mining in future. Miners would then have an incentive to include in the block the spend with the highest fees, even if it is obviously a double spend against an earlier transaction that is already broadcast.

Is this correct?

Yes, if by earlier you mean a few minutes earlier (it would have to have a 50+ BTC fee to make it worthwhile for miners to double-spend a transaction that already made it into the last block).

Two zero-confirmation transactions essentially happen at the same time as far as the network is concerned; if there was a good way for everybody to agree that they happened in a particular order we wouldn't need the blockchain. I assume that miners will take the transactions that give them the greatest short-term profit; that may not be correct (there might be a lot of miners interested in the long-term health of Bitcoin), but I think it is the safest assumption. And I think if we design payment protocols around that assumption they will be more secure.