@BayAreaCoins
Testnet people need a pool that pays for shares found. A CPU will still be able to submit valid shares easily and quickly receive a small amount of Bitcoin Testnet.
This approach would be useless for many developers. While it might be sufficient for payment gateways or wallets, anything mining-related requires the full experience of constructing a block and making it part of the blockchain. Developers need to learn how to properly create valid blocks, handle orphaned blocks, and manage other essential aspects of mining. Simply receiving coins or sending work via Stratum doesn't provide the hands-on experience needed to understand these critical processes.
I think your applying your own personal beliefs to others and this is not what I've witnessed personally from the "Testnet Users". I deal with a lot of different users too at that.
Saying someone "needs" to learn this or that isn't accurate. Lots of people just what a little dust to test their stuff and they don't give two shits about mining. They want to rent power, point power, and get some dust.
Hands on is not something that is needed for 99% of users (or higher)
Proposal C: Do nothing
Pros:
No changes to the code are needed.
Cons:
Developers without enough funding, or those in locations where running an ASIC isn’t feasible, won't be able to test.
I agree with C and I think your Con list is not true or accurate.
Just this morning I received a message about a 6yr old and a 9yr old using crypto with their Grandpa with my website to learn basic math, trading, and other life skills..., which is AWESOME. That is the Testnet I get the warm fuzzies to see, rather than CashAPP using Testnet 3 to learn how to fuck their users out of even more money for Jack. (See Bitcoin mailing list about how CashApp relies on Testnet v3 and won't be moving to v4 anytime soon.)
Problem 2: Block reorgs caused by malicious miners
Proposal A: Remove the difficulty reset and tet the difficulty grow.
Over time, this will make block reorgs extremely expensive, discouraging abuse.
Proposal B: Establish a community-driven consensus
Testnet developers should form a community that reaches an agreement outside of the code, if a miner is found abusing the system via reorgs, they can be collectively ignored, even if they have the longest chain.
Proposal A seems like the best route to give developers an accurate feel for what they are about to deal with in Bitcoin. It will also make the gamesmenship change in Testnet and let noob devs have a chance vs devs that are rocking blocks in the current system.
Proposal B is not going to happen. The fundamental differences are too far. We have no interest in negotiating free markets... it wouldn't feel free then.
White/Black coins in cryptocurrency are far from cool, in my opinion. We would not participate in that. Furthermore, debating if POW has or brings value is basically universally accepted at this point, I don't think Power+Time+Equipment+Use Case can't equal to anything but value of some type to someone. Pros:
Eliminates the incentive to hoard testnet coins, since ASICs are power-hungry, it's unlikely that people will waste resources mining a coin that disappears in a few days. In theory, this could be highly effective against ASIC dominance.
Plenty of miners pay nothing to mine. I actually got paid for using 1ph for free... Mining + thinking = results <3
This would be a major pain in the ass for us that operate faucets as well... my service would manage, but I don't think many others would want to keep up.
We are willing to put in more work on our system because I think I think the only self sustainable testnet faucet (we still maintain v3 coins even without block rewards + the huge spike in demand... I'm extremely proud of this.)
Just curious, does anyone on this thread have a Testnet service or offer anything productive to the network to help others? I'd love to reference y'alls services.