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Ethereum: Would Bitcoin still work without a target difficulty?

11 February، 2025 CRYPTOCURRENCY

Theoretical bitcoin without difficulty objective: a world without consensus

In a mental experiment, let’s explore what could happen if Bitcoin suddenly lost its mechanism of objective difficulty. In this scenario, Bitcoin nodes would no longer have a finite number of mining tasks to complete in each block, and the process of validating new blocks and creating a consensus in the block chain would stop working.

The role of objective difficulty

The objective difficulty is a crucial component of Bitcoin’s validation process. It establishes a limit on the number of mining tasks that can be completed within a specific time frame (currently established in 2 ^157.5 s ^(-1) for the SIA-based work test). This mechanism ensures that:

* Security : The computational power required to extract new blocks is limited, reducing the risk of centralization and malicious actors that dominate the network.

* Scalability

Ethereum: Would Bitcoin still work without a target difficulty?

: The difficulty in the objective helps to distribute the mining workload in multiple nodes, preventing any node from becoming too powerful and controlling the block chain.

* Consensus : The objective difficulty ensures that all nodes have the same opportunity to propose new blocks for validation, preventing a small group of nodes from manipulating the result.

Without difficulty objective: a world without consensus

If Bitcoin nodes suddenly lost their mechanism of objective difficulty, the resulting system would be very different. Here are some potential implications:

* Without consensus : Without mechanism to validate new blocks, there would be no way to establish a unified understanding of the state of Blockchain. The different nodes could have different opinions about the content of the current block, which leads to confusion and possible conflicts.

* centralized control : Without objective difficulty, any unique node could become a de facto central authority, control the network and make arbitrary decisions. This would undermine confidence in decentralized networks and lead to a loss of autonomy for users.

* Greater risk of censorship : As nodes may have different opinions about block content, they can choose to censor or eliminate certain blocks to maintain their own integrity. This could lead to a lack of transparency and hinder information free flow in the network.

* There is no way to update : The current system is based on updates and changes in the protocol to increase the objective of difficulty. Without this mechanism, the updates would be difficult to implement, since the nodes would need to adapt to new rules and regulations.

Current Work Work Test Networks (POW): A bridge to a difficulty difficulty system

On the contrary, test networks such as Ethereum use a more complex system that involves multiple components, which include:

* HASH FUNCTIONS : Nodes generate cryptographic transactions and blocks, which are used to create a digital signature.

* STATE TEST (POS) : Instead of mining, nodes vote for new transactions using their existing currencies. This mechanism encourages nodes holders to maintain the network and participate in validation.

The Ethereum POS system is based on an objective difficulty mechanism, where the nodes have a finite number of mining tasks to complete within each block. This ensures that:

* Security : The computational power required to extract new blocks is limited, reducing the risk of centralization.

* Scalability : The difficulty in the objective helps to distribute the mining workload in multiple nodes.

* Consensus : The target difficulty ensures that all nodes have the same opportunity to propose new blocks for validation.

Conclusion

A world without difficulty would be a fundamentally different place. While it may seem attractive to have a more decentralized control and greater security, the lack of consensus and the potential risks of censorship make it little practical.

Solana When

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