# Gavin Andresen
# 2011-11-15 14:09:33
# https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=51712.msg619395#msg619395

@s{quotedtext}
@s{quotedtext}
No, I've been busy. Although I have in the past said that I'm worried about long-term incentives for relaying transactions (and am not worried at all about the block reward dropping and being replaced by fees). @p{par}

I skimmed the paper, and I'm really pleased to see very smart people thinking hard about the incentive structures built-in to Bitcoin. I think most people see all the digital signatures and peer-to-peer networking technology but miss that much of the brilliance of Bitcoin is how the incentives are designed. @p{par}

Overall, I think the paper is most valuable as a demonstration of how to @p{(it}prove@p{it)} that a particular solution to the problem could work@p{--} whether or not the particular solution the authors propose (rewarding the relaying nodes) is the "best" solution I'm not sure @p{--} there are lots of dimensions of 'goodness' here @p{--} lowest cost, fastest transaction confirmations, easiest to implement, most compatible with the network we have now, etc. @p{par}

A while ago I proposed another potential solution:  have relaying clients drop their connection to 'greedy' nodes. If you have a node that sends you new blocks but isn't relaying you new transactions, maybe drop your connection to it and ban it's IP address from re-connecting to you for a while. Or maybe don't relay (or relay after delaying a couple of minutes) new-block messages that you first see from that node.  The idea is that a mild dis-incentive should be sufficient to encourage nodes to do the right thing and relay all valid transactions and blocks. @p{par}

Figuring out "isn't relaying you new transactions" in a spoof-proof way would be a little tricky@p{--} you want to see real transactions, not miner-generated "I'm pretending to be a good network citizen" transactions. A scheme where you relay transactions to half of your peers and then monitor the other half to see if you receive the transaction back from them should work to detect nodes that are relaying many-fewer-than-normal transactions or blocks. @p{par}


@p{hrule}
 @p{brk}
I've also said repeatedly in the past I'd like to see more diversity in the networks used to transmit bitcoin transactions/blocks (with bridges between them so we're all working on the same block-chain). There doesn't have to be just one right answer to this problem, and I would love to see people simulate or experiment with variations on the existing network protocol or radically different protocols. @p{brk}