Quote from: yvv on February 23, 2017, 01:26:40 PM

Quote from: iamnotback on February 23, 2017, 07:08:03 AM

One of the main flaws of Byteball that you should be aware of besides the messed up transaction fees and distribution, is that the consensus of the blockchain can become entirely stuck if > 50% of the witnesses collude or stop functioning.

This is not a flaw, this is a limitation, just like bitcoin 51% vulnerability. Every consensus algorithm has this kind of limitation, nevertheless some of them are working for years without any fault.

In Bitcoin, the miners are not fixed and can come and go as they please. Thus if the value of the token craters from the 51% censoring all transactions, then the miners stop mining and new miners can take over and it becomes unstuck again without any hard fork. It is a naturally correcting system.

Whereas in Byzantine agreement (of which Byteball is an example), then when sufficient witnesses stop responding (or collude to respond towards divergence), then the system can't become unstuck even if the token value declines. (note Byteball is consensus by majority whereas most Byzantine agreement is 2/3 consensus and I explain the technical reason for that difference in my whitepaper)

Also the number of witnesses in Byteball is fairly limited (maybe at most a dozen or perhaps maybe up to 10X more could be considered), whereas, the number of miners in PoW is in the 1000s. Even if PoW becomes centralized, then those huge mining farms will go bankrupt if the value of the token plummets, so then the 1000s of little miners take over (because many individuals mine Bitcoin for altruistic and anonymity of acquisition reasons on a small scale, not just for profit).

So the probability of Byteball becoming entirely and permanently stuck is much greater. And given shorting and the fact that witnesses don't expend any significant resource, a group that wants to profit by destroying the token value entirely can succeed. Whereas they can't sustain such an activity with PoW, because mining requires ongoing expenditures.

With Bitshares' DPoS (also in Steem), the whales can vote in new witnesses at any time, so it can't get stuck unless the whales decide to destroy it.

The challenge is to design a system that isn't so centralized as all of these, yet also has the positive attributes of PoW without the electricity cost. I claim I have designed such as consensus algorithm. The whitepaper is written. I am just trying to cure my disseminated, extra-pulmonary Tuberculosis so I can get back to programming and continue my project.

Quote from: yvv on February 23, 2017, 02:04:01 PM

It does not matter if it is 51% or 33% or 73.5% vulnerability, it is still vulnerability, but not a flaw. A flaw would be something which prevents the network from being used. 51% vulnerability does not prevent bitcoin from being used, it just puts a limit on how secure it is. Same goes with any other consensus algorithm. A lack of security at all would be a flaw.

Incorrect. A 50+% attacker can censor every transaction because he can always build the longest chain with only the blocks he chooses.

Please I wish you would state your claims as questions rather than pretending you actually know what you are doing. You are arguing with an expert, and you are obviously not an expert.

An academic understands not to make strong claims for that which he hasn't written down the theorems and proofs. So many armchair "experts" around here who pontificate absolute bullshit, hand waving, and technical errors. No wonder that speculators have no clue about the technology. Speculators may get confused by your "Legendary" ranking and presume that means you really know the technology.