Bitcoin Tech #6 - The Threat of Internet Centralisation with Shinobi & Dhruv Mehta

 
 
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“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance…‘how prevalent is an attack’ is not really an important question, ‘how possible is an attack’ is the important question. When the value is 10x of today or 20x of today what people are willing to spend to attack it also goes up.”
— Dhruv Mehta

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Location: Remotely
Date: Wednesday 21st July
Project: Block Digest & Bitcoin Core
Role: Host & Developer

A core fundamental feature of Bitcoin is decentralisation. Being a distributed and decentralised network, Bitcoin allows anyone to transfer money to anyone else without relying on a third party or intermediary to authorise or facilitate the transaction.

For years bitcoiners have fought to keep Bitcoin as decentralised as possible. A segment of the Bitcoin community wanted to increase the block size to allow for more transactions in each block. However, the tradeoff of this proposed change would increase the size of blocks and thus the size of the blockchain, making it harder to run a node on standard hardware.

While the debates around decentralisation are generally around the protocol rules, Bitcoin also relies on the Internet, something outside of bitcoiners’ control. Some aspects of the Internet are highly centralised and could potentially be used to attack Bitcoin.

So, how significant is this threat? And, what can be done to stop it?

In this interview, I talk to Shinobi, the host of Block Digest, and Bitcoin Core Developer Dhruv. We discuss the importance of decentralisation, the protocols that power the internet and how a centralised internet threatens Bitcoin.

TIMESTAMPS

00:04:05: Introductions
00:08:59: Internet centralisation and an example case
00:17:25: Bitcoin decentralisation
00:23:24: Other potential attacks
00:27:12: BIPs to mitigate attacks
00:35:56: The likelihood of node attacks
00:39:39: Who to trust to mitigate these attacks
00:45:01: How scared should we be?
00:52:08: The cost of an attack to the attacker
00:53:49: Measures in place to fix the threat
01:05:18: Final comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

Connect with Dhruv:

Connect with Shinobi:

Mentioned in the interview:

Other Relevant WBD Podcasts:

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