Re: [ANN][KMD][dPoW] Komodo ICO - Zcash Zero Knowledge Privacy Secured by Bitcoin
So 64 notary nodes share majority of mining rewards between them, and non notaries can mine kmd but at a disadvantage.
So consensus is PoW like bitcoin, but the notaries work together and share block reward equally like a cartel.
And notary cartel membership is voted on by coin holders, preventing cartel from misbehaving.
A very interesting combination, not fully decentralized, but much more structure than other crypto coins.
Trust in the notary cartel will depend on election process, very interested to see more details when available.
Yes, you have the basic concept right! However, a cartel is a bit harsh word!
The notary nodes have less power than currently believed. They cannot do a 51% mining attack. The worst they can do is stop bitcoin notarizations, which would result a less secure KMD network. They could also not include a transaction into a block, but would be noticed by everyone, and then any other node could include that tx in a future block. There is also a PAX price attack vector, but we will talk more about PAX later.
So if the notary nodes want to hurt KMD the best they could do is:
- stop notarizing KMD hashes into bitcoin blockchain
- exclude a valid transaction from a block
We will address this issue in our next article! Stay tuned!
Sorry to use a harsh sounding word like cartel, I was focused on the closed membership aspect, did not mean anything negative by that word, I actually think having a closed system for notaries allows better coordination and long term planning, easier upgrades etc. I will look forward to next article. As a noobie to crypto I have been struck by how chaotic, unstable and amateurish many projects appear, but a few like komodo have noticeably more professional outlook.