The
second day begins early (9:30am!) with Bitcoins & browsers:
Tales of a difficult marriage. Amir
gives a brief reintro, then first speaker Stefan (Java expert) comes
to the fore to discuss the compatibility issues between Bitcoin and
web browsers/Javascript. It's difficult to run an entire Bitcoin
client through Javascript. Updated code is permitting decryption
algorithms to run up to sixteen times faster on average, making life
easier and smoother for regular payers, including those using mobile
devices.
Now
Pieter Wuille talks about the complexity of the Bitcoin blockchain
and the importance of full nodes to the network. Bandwidth usage is
relatively limited. A challenge for Bitcoin is to move away from the
idea that the block chain is accessible. It's not practical to rescan
the entire blockchain
just to verify one new transaction, for example. A drawback of the
peer-to-peer system is that the end user is responsible for verifying
(and reverifying) that any transaction is universally
accepted by the Bitcoin network
where all (s)he really cares about is whether the money is accepted
and received by the receiver or merchant. Wuille proposes a kind of
web intermediary to smooth this process but ostensibly this appears
clumsy at present. Is this idea just a glorified online wallet?
The
next lecture is the important-sounding State of the Coin 2012 by Jeff Garzik. He says
Bitcoin is the most challenging technical project he's run into in
his entire lifetime and there's no room for mistakes. If you try to
upgrade the Bitcoin network and have a serious problem, then everyone
could lose their money!
The
basic “Satoshi” Bitcoin client is constantly being reviewed and
reprogrammed. Garzik summarizes some of the techincal reference
client changes in the later versions. He condemns the Wired
magazine article The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin (November
2011).
Garzik
then gives a brief reminder of good basic security practices when
using Bitcoin. Many victims of fraud have failed to follow them so
there's no harm in making such reminders.
Next
up, Marek Palatinus is talking about the future of pooled mining. One
issue highlighted is the susceptibility of mining pools to DDoS
attacks. So far so good, but now he's starting to get a little more
technical. He is, after all, talking from the perspective of managing
an entire mining pool, not just being a single mining node as part of
a pool!
There'll
be some potentially interesting economics-leaning lectures coming up
in the afternoon, including Max Keiser from the RT TV show Keiser
Report (a
show cohosted by Stacy Herbert).
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