My idea on how to do the programmable block chain.
Hope it is not too late to get some feedback on my thoughts.
My take away from the upthread is consistent with my own analysis
centralization of pools is probably positively correlated with required computation (above some threshold).
The Ethereum applications seem important and reasonably decentralized.
https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/White-Paper#applicationsSo pray tell me why it isn't superior to have merge-mined chains for new contract types (as we think of them) and optimize those chains rather than a generalized VM on one block chain?
Advantages are:
- Centralization is granular per contract type.
- Mining participation is optional, thus chains can compete instead of the swallowing the universe entropy(state) = O(∞)
- Failure modes are more contained.
- Incremental development and optimization.
- Market-based instead of top-down metrics (e.g. Ethereum's gas fees) as chains compete to reward miners.
Etc.
Maybe we need to make the process of starting and publicizing a merge-mined chain easier? Do we need an app store of merged-mined chains?
P.S. Apologies in advance if one post can evaporate a $36 million market cap.
Edit: even if you did want a generalized VM for those contracts which don't have enough economy-of-scale to be their own merge-mined chain, you could make that chain merged-mined. You could make variants and let the market decide which one is the winner. Perhaps Ethereum should do this, if they are not satisfied with the Bitcoin mining structure.