and why some changes would be unlikely to occur in anything but an alt.
I'd be happy to have this moved to a different board if appropriate.
I don't have an issue with this particular discussion being in this board. I understand that you're trying to better understand how the Bitcoin mining and and distributed consensus process works, and you're hoping to discover improvements to the process.
However, if you feel that the participants in the alt-coin board are more open-minded, innovative, or more willing to "Brainstorm" with you then you can move it there yourself. There is a "
move topic" link at the very bottom left corner of the thread (right next to the "lock topic" link).
As long as you can tolerate me going over what is old ground for you I am happy to stay here :-)
EDIT: I like using this thread for me to develop and record my thought processes; and I would prefer knowledgeable people to provide input rather than "open minded" but less knowledgeable or informative. By guidance, I don't mean doing my homework for me, just pointers here and there if, for example, I'm trying to reinvent what someone else has already tried to invent, successfully or otherwise. I've followed several of the links you guys have showed me and will look at others -- including another read through Satoshi's original paper, I promise!
Once side chains are active it could be part of a side chain for example.
Ahh yes. Sounds like as good a target as any for me to shoot for.
I had never looked into P2Pool before but I like the concept. Basically, iiuc, by adding to the share chain, miners are able to demonstrate PoW in smaller chunks, even if their work does not result in a bitcoin block, which is much more difficult to generate.
Despite what we've discussed in this thread, it looks like P2Pool servers are identified by IP addresses, like here:
http://p2pool.hostv.pl/and that individual miner nodes reuse their addresses (pitfalls of address reuse notwithstanding), such as this one here:
https://blockchain.info/address/1BnbYeLnz5Cpry6H7NRwgV5pofkEXokac8which is the address corresponding to what looks like the most powerful miner in this pool:
http://mine.p2pool.com:9332/static/So far I still like the idea of using bitcoin addresses for node identification, but not necessarily the address that is used for payouts (like apparently P2Pool miner nodes use). And not attached to IP addresses (like apparently P2Ppools use).