Perhaps the destination address of the block reward could be used as a proxy to distinguish different nodes?
Nodes can (and should) use a new destination address for every block reward. Additionally, some pools pay out the block reward directly to their participants, so the block reward transaction has many addresses.
This would require reusing the same destination address so an individual node could maintain its identity over time.
Which would be impossible to enforce. There'd be know way of knowing if a node used a new address or not. Furthermore, address re-use is a bad idea and should be discouraged.
(Of course this requires that a single node has an incentive to maintain a recognizable identity that is stable over time, and that is the whole point of my scheme so far. I need to learn more about the structure and inner workings of the blockchain to know if any of this makes sense and I apologize if this is coming out as nonsensical blather ... ).
If you are trying to design anything related to bitcoin and you haven't read the
bitcoin whitepaper, then you are wandering in a dense dark forest with your eyes shut. You're just going to keep bumping into trees and hurting yourself. Take the time to read it, then take the time to ask questions and make sure that you really understand both the original whitepaper as well as the final design of bitcoin (which has some significant differences from the original whitepaper).
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdfAlso, I would strive not to change the inflation schedule. Perhaps the extra reward I am talking about could be carved out of the existing reward?? ...
OR: perhaps the ante would involve, not only a PoW, but also a small payment in bitcoin, and that is what is used to fund my whole scheme. No change in the inflation schedule necessary!
You're talking about giving a bigger (or smaller) reward as incentive or punishment for individual blocks. That is a change in the inflation schedule.