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8\ These examples are not pathologies. They are fundamental problems of interstellar commerce. I read a lot of sci-fi but I don't know of many authors who write about interstellar distributed consensus. Everyone writes about the engines, but the money is just as vital...
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9\ I'm writing about these problems not just because they're fun but because I think they motivate clearer thinking about distributed systems here on Earth, today. Also, I simply don't know the solutions! How would you solve these problems, if you were a future financier?
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10\ I think that "long integration times" must be part of the solution: a 20-year "pending transaction period" for a bank or a 20-year target block time for a blockchain. Combine that with still "waiting for 6 confirmations" and you get century-long transaction timescales. #whoa
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11\ Such a system could never be used for day-to-day transactions (space-coffees). Something else would be necessary. Banks might let you borrow against your holdings in another star system until they can be transferred locally (and your opportunity to double-spend eliminated).
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12\ For blockchains, this problem could not be solved with bigger/faster blocks -- the only way to deal with the uncertainty caused by light lag is to wait. Lesson: Different chains do different things. Layers (#LightningNetwork) and sidechains are necessary for space-coffees.
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13\ Hashpower ratios between star systems are also critical. If hashpower on Earth is many times that of α-Centauri, newly mined blocks on α-Centauri will constantly get uncled. Users on α-Centauri will only trust Earth blocks. Mining will become centralized to Earth: colonialism
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14\ Today's analogy for light-lag is low-bandwidth: both limit your ability to mine and thus cause centralization. Some ignore this issue, but it's real. Lesson: Increasing block sizes with constant network connectivity speeds disadvantages miners with low-bandwidth (~light-lag)
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15\ In summary, pondering these absurd scenarios may help you understand constraints on consensus inherent to the physical universe. Analogies for these constraints can help us design better distributed systems today. Also, don't tell me blockchains have no real use case :)
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