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On Sun, Aug 30, 2015 at 1:43 AM, Peter R <peter_r@gmx.com> wrote:
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> Dear Greg,
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>
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> I am moving our conversation into public as I've recently learned that
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> you've been forwarding our private email conversation verbatim without
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> my permission [I received permission from dpinna to share the email
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> below that proves this fact].
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Unfortunately, your work extensive as it was -- separately-- made two
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Unfortunately, your work extensive as it was made at least two
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non-disclosed or poorly disclosed simplifying assumption and a significant
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non-disclosed or poorly-disclosed simplifying assumptions and a significant
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system understanding error which undermined it completely.
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system understanding error which, I believe, undermined it completely.
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In short these were:
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* You assume miners do not have the ability to change their level
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centralization.
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 -- In fact they do, in practice they _seem_ to have responded to
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 -- In fact they do, not just in theory but in pratice have responded
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    blocksize this way in the past; and it is one of the major
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    to orphaning this way in the past; and it is one of the major
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    concerns in this space.
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* You assume the supply of bitcoin is infinite (that subsidy never
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declines)
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 -- It declines geometrically, and must if the 21m limit is to be upheld.
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    (Though I think this is not equally important to the concerns)
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* You argue, incorrectly, that amount of information which must be
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transmitted at the moment a block is discovered is proportional to the
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block's size.
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 -- Instead the same information can be transmitted _in advance_ as
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 has been previously proposed and various techniques can make this
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 -- Instead the same information can be transmitted _in advance_, as
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 arbitrarily efficient.
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 has been previously proposed, and various techniques can make doing
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 so arbitrarily efficient.
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[I would encourage anyone who is interested to read the included off-list
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discussion]
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I contacted you in private as a courtesy in the hope that it would be
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a more productive pathway to improving our collective understanding; as well
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as a courtesy to the readers of the list in consideration of traffic levels.
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In one sense, this was a success: Our conversation concluded with you
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enumerating a series of corrective actions that you would take:
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--------
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> 1.  I will make it more clear that the results of the paper hinge on
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> the assumption that block solutions are propagated across channels,
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> and that the quantity of pure information communicated per solution
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> is proportional to the amount of information contained within the block.
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>
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> 2.  I will add a note [unless you ask me not to] something to the effect
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> of "Greg Maxwell challenges the claim that the coding gain cannot
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> be infinite…" followed by a summary of the scenario you described.
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> I will reference "personal communication."  I will also run the note
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> by you before I make the next revision public.
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>
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> 3.  I will point out that if the coding gain can be made spectacularly
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> high, that the propagation impedance in my model will become very small,
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> and that although a fee market may strictly exist in the asymptotic
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> sense, such a fee market may not be relevant (the phenomena in the paper
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> would be negligible compared to the dynamics from some other effect).
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>
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> 4. [UNRELATED] I also plan to address Dave Hudson's objections in my
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> next revision (the "you don't orphan your own block" point).
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>
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> Lastly, thank you for the note about what might happen when fees >
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> rewards.  I've have indeed been thinking about this.  I believe it is
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> outside the scope of the present paper, although I am doing some work
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> on the topic.  (Perhaps I'll add a bit more discussion on this topic
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> to the present paper to get the reader thinking in this direction).
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--------
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To the best of my knowledge, you've taken none of these corrective
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actions in the nearly month that has passed.  I certainly understand being
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backlogged, but you've also continued to make public comments about your
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work seemingly (to me) in contradiction with the above corrective actions.
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work and wasn't made aware of these points.  The result was that the other
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authors work may require significant revisions.  I complained about this
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work and wasn't made aware of these points.  A result was that the other
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to you, again privately, and your apparent response was to post to that
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author's work may require significant revisions.
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thread stating that there was a details-unspecified academic disagreement
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with me and "I look forward to a white paper demonstrating otherwise!",
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I complained about this to you, again privately, and your (apparent)
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in direct contradiction for your remarks to me three weeks ago in private
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response was to post to that thread stating that there was a
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correspondence. -- Contrast, in private you said that your model may
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details-unspecified academic disagreement with me and "I look forward
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only hold in an asymptotic sense and that "the phenomena in the paper
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to a white paper demonstrating otherwise!", in direct contradiction to
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would be negligible compared to the dynamics from some other effect";
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your remarks to me three weeks ago in private correspondence: In private
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but in public you said my complaints were "academic"?
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you said that your model may only hold in an asymptotic sense and that
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"the phenomena in the paper (may) be negligible compared to the dynamics
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from some other effect"; but in public you said /my/ complaints were
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"academic".
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At this point I thought continuing to withhold this information from
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the other author was unethical and no longer justified by courtesy
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read it and consider it.".   I apologize if in doing so I've breached
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your confidence, none of the material we discussed was a sort that I
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would have ordinarily considered private, and you had already talked
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about making the product of our communication published as part of your
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read it and consider it.".
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corrective actions.  I do not think it would be reasonable to demand that
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I spent time repeating the same discussion again with the other author,
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I apologize if in doing so I've breached your confidence, none of the
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or deprive them of your side of it and/or the corrective actions which
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material we discussed was a sort that I would have ordinarily considered
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you had said you would take but have not taken.   As you say, 'we are
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private, and you had already talked about making the product of our
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all here trying to learn about this new amazing thing called Bitcoin';
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communication published as part of your corrective actions. 
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and I'm not embarrassed to error towards doing that, but I am sorry
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I do not think it would be reasonable to demand that I spent time
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repeating the same discussion again with the other author, or deprive
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them of your side of it and/or the corrective actions which you had
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said you would take but have not yet taken.
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As you say, 'we are all here trying to learn about this new amazing
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thing called Bitcoin'; and I'm not embarrassed to error towards doing
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that and aiding others in doing so, but at the same time I am sorry
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that I have done so in a way which caused you injury.
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In any case, your prior proposed corrective actions seemed sufficient to me.
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It surprises me, greatly, that you are failing to see the extreme
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practicality of what I described to you, and that it does not meaningfully
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diminish miner control of transaction selection-- but even without it your
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remark that the proportionality could be arbitrarily small (Rather than
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0, as I argue) is an adequate correction to your work.  I believe my time
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would be better spent actually _implementing_ improved relaying described
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(and describe what was implemented) than continue a purely academic debate
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with you over in inconsequential difference between epsilon and zero.
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Cheers,