On 11/5/15, Eric Voskuil via bitcoin-dev <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote: > On 11/05/2015 03:03 PM, Adam Back via bitcoin-dev wrote: >> ... >> Validators: Economically dependent full nodes are an important part of >> Bitcoin's security model because they assure Bitcoin security by >> enforcing consensus rules. While full nodes do not have orphan >> risk, we also dont want maliciously crafted blocks with pathological >> validation cost to erode security by knocking reasonable spec full >> nodes off the network on CPU (or bandwidth grounds). >> ... >> Validators vs Miner decentralisation balance: >> >> There is a tradeoff where we can tolerate weak miner decentralisation >> if we can rely on good validator decentralisation or vice versa. But >> both being weak is risky. Currently given mining centralisation >> itself is weak, that makes validator decentralisation a critical >> remaining defence - ie security depends more on validator >> decentralisation than it would if mining decentralisation was in a >> better shape. > > This side of the security model seems underappreciated, if not poorly > understood. Weakening is not just occurring because of the proliferation > of non-validating wallet software and centralized (web) wallets, but > also centralized Bitcoin APIs. > > Over time developers tend to settle on a couple of API providers for a > given problem. Bing and Google for search and mapping, for example. All > applications and users of them, depending on an API service, reduce to a > single validator. Imagine most Bitcoin applications built on the > equivalent of Bing and Google. > > e > >
I disagree. I think blockchain APIs are a good thing for decentralization. There aren't just 3 or 4 blockexplorer APIs out there, there are dozens. Each API returns essentially the same data, so they are all interchangeable. Take a look at this python package: https://github.com/priestc/moneywagon _______________________________________________ bitcoin-dev mailing list bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev
