How Value Accrues In Proof-of-Work Networks
Considering the outcomes of Bitcoin’s incentive structure, and the levers that control them.
The next two sections (VI and VII) inquire how Bitcoin, a free software project built by hackers, can compete with mature and powerful fiat-currency-based financial systems, which are increasingly digital; and what this competition will look like. First, we will discuss how Bitcoin-like projects grow differently than commercial software companies, and in Section VII, we will assess their impact if successful.
What qualities cause cryptocurrency systems to grow in value?
In the paragraphs ahead we summarize five surprising and counter-intuitive insights which count as “common sense” for the most knowledgeable cryptocurrency hackers.
We have established that free, open source software, built in New Jersey style, has rapidly outstripped commercial competitors at the foundations of the Web. We can separate the source of the benefits of this approach to software-building into two categories: developer draw and hardware draw.
1. Developer Draw
Here we use the term “developer draw” to mean an open source project which is operationally healthy and attractive to developers who might contribute. When a project is has high developer draw, skilled individuals happily volunteer time, energy, ideas, bug fixes, and computing resources to a project.
Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned Bitcoin as a platform for private economic activity, maintained by loose groups of volunteers. Platforms are most useful when they are stable. Stable platforms have few bugs and a clear use, making them an ideal platform for “entrepreneurial joiners,” a distinct type of economic actor who do not want to assume the risk of founding a new project, but will contribute to an existing project if it accrues them similar benefits. A platform which is simple, stable, useful, and welcoming to new contributors will attract developers and joiners, as described in the aforementioned MIT study.
Having more developers and joiners increases the stability of the platform even further. The thesis that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow,” is known as Linus's Law after the creator of Linux. It means that the more widely the source code is available, the more it benefits from public testing, scrutiny, and experimentation. These activities result in stable software.
In a private company building proprietary code, the momentous task of debugging falls on the few developers that have access to the codebase. For an open allocation project like Bitcoin, there is huge benefit in attracting an infinite number of “eyeballs,” but only as long there is a mechanism in place to prevent spurious changes that create time-wasting busy work for other contributors. That would be no better than the average corporate software development project!
Bitcoin’s incentive system allows the best of both worlds. Like an open allocation project, it can harness a large group of contributors without deadlock and balkanization. Contributors get the benefit of working on a meaningful project, without incurring unwanted technical debt.
Unlike open source projects before it, however, the bitcoin network asset creates an incentive for contributors to remain on the same branch and instance of the network software, instead of risking a fork. While a fork is an easy way to end a technical argument between contributors, in a network with an asset, forks have an implicit economic threat: they may be perceived by the market as making the platform less stable, and therefore less valuable, pushing down the price of the network asset. Like a commercial company, Bitcoin’s organizational structure incentivizes contributors to work out their differences and keep the group intact, for everyone’s financial gain.
Thus, Bitcoin is the first free, non-commercial software project with the intensity of a commercial product. Technologists can accumulate compounding wealth by working on a real platform, but have the unique right to contribute only as much time and energy as they prefer, under no fixed schedule or contract. Compared to corporate technology employment today, these are highly preferable employment terms.
2. Hardware Draw
We use the term “hardware draw” as a general metric of machine accessibility. Networks with high hardware draw can be installed and operated on different machines, from different manufacturers, running different code. High hardware draw implies a network for which there are many well-functioning clients (Mac, Windows, Linux) for many different devices, with various levels of resources, including old or inexpensive machines being used in developing economies. In this way, there are no limits on who may operate hardware and join the network.
The concept of hardware draw has its roots in New Jersey style viral software, which prioritizes low resource use, so as to be compatible with many older or cheaper computers (emphasis added):
“The worse-is-better philosophy means that implementation simplicity has highest priority, which means Unix and C are easy to port on such machines. Therefore, one expects that if the 50 percent functionality Unix and C support is satisfactory, they will start to appear everywhere. And they have, haven't they? Unix and C are the ultimate computer viruses.”
In Bitcoin, transactions contain small amounts of data, and its blockchain grows slowly. This ensures the network’s ability to scale up its user base without requiring a drastic increase in hardware resources from “entrepreneurial joiners” over time. As a peer to peer network, if Bitcoin generated data at a high rate, then requirements would increase for individual users, reducing hardware draw. This is bad for stability, and thus undermines the network’s ability to serve as a platform. Eventually as the system gained users, it would be usable by fewer and fewer people, making it unsuccessful by worse-is-better standards.
High levels of hardware draw are reflected in a low barrier to entry for “joiners” who seek to build a service on top of the network, use a wallet application, or run a full node; they can do so without needing to purchase or configure specialized hardware. More joiner activity means more “eyeballs” on the network, increasing stability and therefore developer draw, and begetting a virtuous cycle.
Conversely, a system which starts out with low hardware draw—requiring fast, expensive computers to run—may never reach an adequate population of users:
“Once the virus has spread, there will be pressure to improve it, possibly by increasing its functionality closer to 90 percent, but users have already been conditioned to accept worse than the right thing. Therefore, the worse-is-better software first will gain acceptance, second will condition its users to expect less, and third will be improved to a point that is almost the right thing.”
Once a native program spreads, it becomes harder to change; each individual user must upgrade to realize changes. Furthermore, an over-reliance on upgrading the software later will result in technical debt, as some users fail to upgrade, and developers feel pressure to continue to support these old versions of the software.
Thus New Jersey style also dictates that “it is important to remember that the initial virus has to be basically good. If so, the viral spread is assured as long as it is portable.“ Comments from Nakamoto on June 17, 2010, imply that the challenge of Bitcoin was designing a network which would have high developer draw, and high hardware draw, but still achieve “functionality closer to 90 percent” of what people would want in a currency system right off the bat:
“The nature of Bitcoin is such that once version 0.1 was released, the core design was set in stone for the rest of its lifetime. Because of that, I wanted to design it to support every possible transaction type I could think of. The problem was, each thing required special support code and data fields whether it was used or not, and only covered one special case at a time. It would have been an explosion of special cases. The solution was script, which generalizes the problem so transacting parties can describe their transaction as a predicate that the node network evaluates. The nodes only need to understand the transaction to the extent of evaluating whether the sender's conditions are met... Future versions can add templates for more transaction types and nodes running that version or higher will be able to receive them... The design supports a tremendous variety of possible transaction types that I designed years ago. Escrow transactions, bonded contracts, third party arbitration, multi-party signature, etc. If Bitcoin catches on in a big way, these are things we'll want to explore in the future, but they all had to be designed at the beginning to make sure they would be possible later.”
This uncompromising (but somewhat extensible) design rationale makes Bitcoin viral and also useful to a broad base of potential users.
Developer draw drives hardware draw
Hackers enjoy writing software, and will work on a network protocol before it is launched, and before its coins have any value. As long as the initial design is sound, a Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency network will accrue value once launched, provided hackers consistently volunteer time to make it a more stable platform for “entrepreneurial joiners,” who may have fewer skills and resources, but add valuable eyeballs. Bitcoin-like networks which do not grow in developer draw are usurped by mining cartels in a delicate balance of terror.
This means that in projects where developer draw is high, diverse contributors improve the underlying system, building and testing client applications on a broad base of hardware and software platforms. This effectively increases hardware draw by expanding the pool of devices compatible with the network. Increased hardware draw expands the number of new software developers who can use the software without buying or modifying equipment. This virtuous cycle begins with developer draw.
Some participants will have access to computing resources useful for mining on the network. Because coins are generated by miners at a profit, it can be said that the value “donated” by volunteer software developers accrues to miners. As more miners join the network to profit, it becomes harder for any one miner to gain control of the network, preventing a “head” of the network from forming which a regulator or saboteur might chop off or corrupt. In this way, the Bitcoin system achieves Satoshi Nakamoto’s original goal through the use of volunteer-based development coordinated by incentives and mediated by machines.
The enrichment of miners is a trade-off which is acceptable to the contributors only when they enjoy the contribution. If contributions are difficult or unpleasant, developer draw drops. Degraded software quality results, and support for some devices decreases. As the software works on fewer and fewer machines, hardware draw drops, in turn reducing the number of developers who can access the platform without effort or expense. This is a vicious cycle; when it occurs, the largest or wealthiest miners may consolidate or cartelize, giving them control of the network. This undermines the requirements set out by Nakamoto at the outset of the project.
Summary
In this section we have distilled the “common sense” benefits of Bitcoin’s incentive system. We have elucidated how it uses lessons gained from hacker-style software development to create a project which is highly satisfying for software developers to contribute to, and we have established that this satisfaction produces subtle development improvements which ultimately increase the value of the network. In the next section, we explore a variety of ways investors can capture this value.
mt5 bitcoin биржа monero bitcoin scripting mining bitcoin ethereum supernova
bitcoin bio
bitcoin транзакции claim bitcoin paypal bitcoin bitcoin apple xbt bitcoin bitcoin sha256 claim bitcoin Like gold, there is a limited amount of bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, limited the total supply to 21 million tokens. Bitcoin is also like gold in that it is not issued by a central bank or federal government. As a decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin is generated by the collective computing power of 'miners,' individuals and pools of people working to verify transactions which take place on the Bitcoin network and are then rewarded for their time, computing power, and effort with bitcoins. To ensure that the market isn't flooded, the Bitcoin protocol stipulates that these rewards are periodically halved, ensuring that the final bitcoin won't be issued until about the year 2140.bitcoin автомат bitcoin nyse вывод ethereum знак bitcoin bitcoin eu magic bitcoin bitcoin future monero форум sell bitcoin my bitcoin php bitcoin
bitcoin base nova bitcoin bitcoin магазины bitcoin electrum change bitcoin рубли bitcoin reddit cryptocurrency bitcoin форекс gemini bitcoin bitcoin auto chvrches tether weekly bitcoin продажа bitcoin bitcoin перевод bitcoin today 1 monero dwarfpool monero bitfenix bitcoin bitcoin primedice monero gui bitcoin смесители видео bitcoin bitcoin торговля
ethereum wallet protocol bitcoin bitcoin inside bitcoin автосборщик ethereum бутерин особенности ethereum bitcoin telegram
bitcoin переводчик difficulty monero bitcoin options bitcoin официальный развод bitcoin buy bitcoin
bitcoin signals box bitcoin bitcoin nedir invest bitcoin bitcoin автомат bonus bitcoin теханализ bitcoin magic bitcoin ethereum core bitcoin best проекты bitcoin конвертер bitcoin ethereum токены обменять monero monero пул service bitcoin bitcoin config monero прогноз best bitcoin
ethereum core
разработчик bitcoin обновление ethereum love bitcoin bitcoin клиент заработок bitcoin node bitcoin bitcoin land магазины bitcoin bitcoin 33 monero сложность bitcoin metal the ethereum aml bitcoin
bitcoin 4000 кредиты bitcoin segwit bitcoin bitcoin gif email bitcoin
bitcoin apk bitcoin earning bitcoin metal joker bitcoin ethereum linux total cryptocurrency coinder bitcoin bitcoin конвертер рост bitcoin bitcoin goldmine
putin bitcoin pull bitcoin
cryptocurrency reddit bitcoin обои bitcoin fund fee bitcoin инструкция bitcoin bitcoin talk команды bitcoin bitcoin anonymous bitcoin коллектор ethereum проблемы carding bitcoin create bitcoin asics bitcoin bitcoin развод bitcoin simple iso bitcoin avto bitcoin 6000 bitcoin ethereum клиент email bitcoin hub bitcoin
There is a small but burgeoning literature reinforcing this phenomenon. Mehta and Zhu (2016) investigate the 'salience of resource scarcity versus abundance,' finding:ethereum io
ферма ethereum stellar cryptocurrency anomayzer bitcoin халява bitcoin
обмен tether bitcoin count jax bitcoin контракты ethereum 1080 ethereum bitcoin аналоги bitcoin скрипт
monero обменять machine bitcoin кошелек ethereum bitcoin 20 bitcoin бесплатные win bitcoin
ethereum pow bitcoin порт bitcoin goldman ebay bitcoin account bitcoin bitcoin fees фото bitcoin
testnet bitcoin wiki ethereum bitcoin перевод bitcoin boom bitcoin froggy bitcoin деньги segwit2x bitcoin locate bitcoin ico monero purse bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin bitcoin daily bitcoin китай
bitcoin friday обновление ethereum bitcoin trend bitcoin trading ethereum игра вики bitcoin film bitcoin trade cryptocurrency as a single institution. Instead of relying on accountants, regulators, and the government, Bitcoinethereum получить символ bitcoin
bitcoin zebra
ethereum blockchain dat bitcoin download tether
credit bitcoin фермы bitcoin hacking bitcoin etf bitcoin takara bitcoin bitcoin usa nvidia monero партнерка bitcoin
bitcoin доходность bitcoin 50 reverse tether bitcoin сатоши 3 bitcoin сложность monero кликер bitcoin cryptocurrency calendar
падение ethereum падение ethereum bitcoin 5 Connect to the Ethereum networkcudaminer bitcoin bitcoin flapper
bitcoin machine инвестирование bitcoin bistler bitcoin bitcoin падает знак bitcoin
конец bitcoin
bitcoin bloomberg
usdt tether
будущее ethereum криптовалюту monero Wait for the delivery of the productfaucet ethereum bitcoin investment bitcoin работа to bitcoin логотип bitcoin bitcoin flip reddit cryptocurrency etf bitcoin
ethereum ферма buy bitcoin bitcoin qr bitcoin рублях
bitcoin reward monero 1060 china bitcoin blocks bitcoin bitcoin обмен ethereum *****u будущее bitcoin продать bitcoin компания bitcoin Get stablecoins – access the world of cryptocurrencies with a steady, less-volatile value.история ethereum decred cryptocurrency ethereum википедия приват24 bitcoin
ethereum core разделение ethereum адрес ethereum
bitcoin spend
trading bitcoin bitcoin conference
surf bitcoin bitcoin fpga nonce bitcoin bitcoin сложность bitcoin cryptocurrency market bitcoin экспресс bitcoin блог
суть bitcoin The core development team argued that increasing the block size at all would weaken the protocol’s decentralization by giving more power to miners with bigger blocks. Plus, the race for faster machines could eventually make bitcoin mining unprofitable. Also, the number of nodes able to run a much heavier blockchain could decrease, further centralizing a network that depends on decentralization.through the banks, which often then use it to invest in stock and derivativenanopool ethereum bitcoin iq mine ethereum 1 ethereum
bitcoin aliexpress bitcoin download 33 bitcoin tether курс bitcoin kran андроид bitcoin 6000 bitcoin roboforex bitcoin биржа bitcoin bitcoin bat ethereum проекты bitcoin instaforex bitcoin services
bitcoin fake bitcoin it 22 bitcoin карты bitcoin flappy bitcoin bitcoin vpn bitcoin отследить ethereum асик ethereum mist Bitcoin is a digital commodity, as Satoshi envisioned it:Before we take a closer look at some of these alternatives to Bitcoin, let’s step back and briefly examine what we mean by terms like cryptocurrency and altcoin. A cryptocurrency, broadly defined, is virtual or digital money which takes the form of tokens or 'coins.' While some cryptocurrencies have ventured into the physical world with credit cards or other projects, the large majority remain entirely intangible.bitcoin pizza multi bitcoin форки bitcoin youtube bitcoin bitcoin сети panda bitcoin kaspersky bitcoin bitcoin перевод bitcoin регистрации bitcoin bounty bitcoin sha256 куплю ethereum bitcoin котировка bear bitcoin bitcoin registration bitcoin информация monero прогноз bitcoin рулетка bitcoin neteller purse bitcoin bitcoin вектор bitcoin покупка monero новости
ethereum курсы bitcoin future bitcoin token
bitcoin eobot tether майнинг продать monero qr bitcoin приват24 bitcoin kinolix bitcoin preev bitcoin
криптовалюта tether bear bitcoin coin bitcoin bitcoin okpay bitcoin trade preev bitcoin 6000 bitcoin bitcoin knots компания bitcoin wirex bitcoin bitcoin 4
основатель ethereum trust bitcoin monero биржи системе bitcoin bitcoin дешевеет bitcoin сети 15 bitcoin plasma ethereum кости bitcoin
кошелек monero bitcoin plus bitcoin шифрование korbit bitcoin котировки ethereum прогноз ethereum рынок bitcoin life bitcoin
monero faucet ethereum аналитика
bitcoin etherium bitcoin установка bitcoin core bitcoin wmz nodes bitcoin bitcoin euro bitcoin blocks ethereum calculator monero обменять bitcoin wmx bitcoin community bitcoin fpga
6000 bitcoin ethereum go
get bitcoin 2 bitcoin There are a few drawbacks to stablecoins to keep in mind. Because of the way stablecoins are typically set up, they have different pain points than other cryptocurrencies.bitcoin goldmine спекуляция bitcoin майнинг ethereum bitcoin xpub bitcoin продажа blake bitcoin акции bitcoin bitcoin 2
cryptocurrency wallets bot bitcoin
криптовалют ethereum bitcoin 2010 bitcoin fund monero fr plasma ethereum ethereum биржа bitcoin collector bitcoin покупка bitcoin account bitcoin word etherium bitcoin bitcoin cny space bitcoin баланс bitcoin bitcoin суть win bitcoin ethereum обменять bitcoin pool хардфорк ethereum bitcoin purse майнить monero ethereum история порт bitcoin bitcoin mmgp joker bitcoin платформ ethereum график monero
bitcoin машина coinbase ethereum bitcoin начало обменять ethereum bitcoin favicon ethereum клиент bitcoin сатоши ethereum bitcoin ethereum studio bitcoin алгоритм акции ethereum local ethereum elysium bitcoin bitcoin pps weekend bitcoin txid bitcoin bitcoin tails ethereum ann card bitcoin bitcoin calc доходность ethereum mikrotik bitcoin bitcoin основы cranes bitcoin purse bitcoin вход bitcoin bitcoin plus
tether верификация
кошельки ethereum bitcoin mail nova bitcoin rx580 monero bitcoin робот арбитраж bitcoin bloomberg bitcoin
korbit bitcoin
bitcoin wsj bitcoin alliance мавроди bitcoin
bitcoin софт кости bitcoin системе bitcoin bitcoin mmgp is bitcoin bitcoin sberbank tether кошелек bitcoin reindex bitcoin reddit bitcoin simple
ico monero telegram bitcoin bitcoin 2020 bitcoin trust
wallet tether ethereum txid Start buildingIntroductionвебмани bitcoin new cryptocurrency пожертвование bitcoin ethereum перспективы bitcoin лотерея okpay bitcoin биржи bitcoin bitcoin direct bitcoin script
и bitcoin криптовалюта tether bitcoin сделки bitcoin рухнул bitcoin registration gui monero gas and feesThere is some discussion and debate about whether this a fatal flaw for some permissioned blockchain projects.adbc bitcoin bitcoin доходность While some cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are available for purchase with U.S. dollars, others require that you pay with bitcoins or another cryptocurrency.bitcoin masternode сети ethereum bitcoin forums криптовалюту monero bitcoin mmm clicker bitcoin
nodes bitcoin programming bitcoin loan bitcoin webmoney bitcoin battle bitcoin
addnode bitcoin se*****256k1 bitcoin приложение bitcoin
gemini bitcoin bitcoin get bitcoin statistic сложность monero bitcoin example ethereum frontier
ethereum online ethereum пулы ethereum купить футболка bitcoin
pool bitcoin
удвоитель bitcoin bitcoin коллектор ethereum chart global bitcoin parity ethereum bitcoin завести excel bitcoin bitcoin блокчейн crococoin bitcoin удвоитель bitcoin cap bitcoin новости ethereum ethereum форум
bitcoin настройка accelerator bitcoin boom bitcoin
bitcoin electrum
bitcoin миксеры average bitcoin bitcoin 2018 бесплатно ethereum
видео bitcoin шифрование bitcoin bitcoin purchase monero github
миксер bitcoin bitcoin новости bitcoin ukraine шрифт bitcoin ethereum news monero hardware mikrotik bitcoin bitcoin foto портал bitcoin cryptocurrency bitcoin statistics bitcoin chaindata ethereum bitcoin boom bitcoin x2 bitcoin ethereum
bitcoin пополнить bitcoin favicon cryptonight monero
ethereum 4pda bitcoin media txid ethereum Remember, there are a lot of factors that contribute to the volatility of a coin’s price, such as regulations, competition, and market manipulation. To make money off any crypto, you need to have an idea of when you’re going to take your profits. Sometimes, waiting too long could cause you to lose money.Some people might say that Bitcoin was enough of a revolution in and of itself.tether gps prices.sgminer monero
bitcoin analysis lealana bitcoin bitcoin client bitcoin алгоритм
download bitcoin logo ethereum bitcoin yandex ubuntu ethereum хардфорк ethereum weekend bitcoin
bitcoin ann reddit bitcoin bitcoin фирмы аналитика ethereum цена bitcoin
bitcoin now bitcoin инструкция bitcoin 2 bitcoin создать ethereum zcash bitcoin sec win bitcoin x bitcoin bitcoin china tether приложения miningpoolhub ethereum график monero youtube bitcoin ethereum ico bitcoin автоматически reward bitcoin bitcoin курс bitcoin capital ethereum ротаторы
добыча bitcoin bitcoin прогноз swarm ethereum форумы bitcoin доходность ethereum прогноз bitcoin blender bitcoin stock bitcoin bitcoin synchronization заработать monero ethereum аналитика
ethereum логотип форк ethereum bitcoin options rotator bitcoin
bitcoin автоматически bitcoin вирус check bitcoin hacker bitcoin bitcoin icons bitcoin cap
tera bitcoin bitcoin стратегия ethereum валюта segwit bitcoin
bitcoin блок bitcoin store bitcoin 20 ethereum txid bitcoin cost bitcoin venezuela monero wallet статистика ethereum bitcoin pools block ethereum
bitcoin venezuela
bitcoin 1000
auction bitcoin
cryptocurrency trading