Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read
Bitcoin paralelle mining scaling solution (on the back of a cigarette packet)
So consider this possble solution to the scaling problem:
Mining algorithm
- Block 1 of transactions is fed to miners and block 2 is filled as transactions pour in, miners all mine block 1.
- Once block 2 is filled miners have the option of switching to block 2 but this will mean losing their progress on block 1. Similarly if block 2 fills they can choose to start mining on block 3 etc.
- All blocks above block 1 have “progressive puzzles” so instead of having a very hard puzzle that takes 10 minutes to solve they have 10 puzzles, a 1 minute puzzle, a 2 minute puzzle, a 3 minute puzzle all the way up to 10 minutes.
- As soon as puzzle is solved on block 1 the hash pointer gets added to the already being mined block 2 and each miner already mining block 2 gets a difficulty reduction based on the work they have already done.
- Proof of work is determined on the highest “progressive puzzle” they already solved on the block, i.e if they solved puzzle 1 and 3 they get a level 7 puzzle to solve.
- If block 2 is solved before block 1 then block 2 miners must wait until block 1 is solved and get a difficulty of almost zero on block 2.
- Overall coin reward per block is adjusted in addition to puzzle difficulty to accommodate for more blocks getting solved quicker to maintain the correct cadence. This prevents wasteful mining for coin rewards versus transaction fees.
- Because miners can pick and choose which level block to mine a very small miner could mine a block far in the future and have a better chance of solving the puzzle, evening out the playing field and encouraging smaller miners.