Chapter 611 Feedback
After Lin Hong published the principle description document of Bitcoin, it did not attract the attention of many people at the beginning. After reading it, many people only felt that they were confused and mysterious. They thought that the author of this article was a little exaggerated and claimed that it could perfectly solve the problems of traditional virtual currency.
After all, although this document is only nine pages short, it contains a huge amount of information. Ordinary people can't understand what the content is at all.
No wonder, this document is the product of Lin Hong's main research over the years, covering various fields such as computer science, cryptography, finance, and mathematics.
Lin Hong only sent it to this email discussion group, which is also taken into account.
His article is really difficult for ordinary people to understand, and it must be a professional. That's why he did not publish it directly in China or on the forum, but chose this kind of relatively confidential and highly professional discussion group.
This discussion group will also have some technical discussions at ordinary times. The topics discussed are very professional and must have enough professional knowledge to understand, let alone participate in the discussion.
The members of this discussion group are very complex. Lin Hong speculates that a large number of people should be scientific researchers in major research institutes and universities, such as financial scholars, cryptographers, mathematicians, university professors, etc. Only these people can have such profound attainments in some aspects.
Lin Hong seldom participates in discussions at ordinary times, usually as a spectator. Learn about the latest developments. Of course, if you come across a topic that you are more interested in, you will occasionally say a few words.
This time, he used the new account GHOSTER to publish this article on this discussion group for the first time. Because he was a newcomer, he did not attract much attention. And even if someone downloads this article, after reading it, they can't understand the huge amount of information contained in this article for a while.
Of course. Few people understand, which does not mean that no one understands.
Just like when Einstein released the theory of relativity, few people in the world could understand it. But after all, there are still a few people who can understand and see the meaning behind it.
Several people still saw Lin Hong's article and understood it.
One of them is Eric, the founder of the cryptopunk organization, who attended the cryptopunk party when Lin Hong was in the United States. The blonde-haired speaker on the stage, a former INTEL cryptographer.
He and several other friends have tried to design virtual currency many times and have also carried out practical operations, but in the end, these currencies proved to not work. There are various drawbacks, among which the most difficult to solve are abuse and too close contact with traditional banks, which has lost the original intention of designing virtual currency, and eventually become a vassal or supplement to traditional currency.
It is precisely because of these profound experiences and experiences. After reading this article, Eric was shocked by the bold design and whimsy contained in it.
No, it's not just a whimsy, it can be said to be a perfect solution!
Eric immediately printed out this document, then read it word by word, and then analyzed it. Deduce.
Do not set up a central management agency or server, but use the "mining" mechanism to generate currency and the problem of currency abuse - a perfect solution!
Use the distributed point-to-point network to check and verify the legitimacy of the currency through the HASHASHCASH mechanism, and the problem of spending money repeatedly - a perfect solution!
Use the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm ECDSA to form a digital signature blockchain, form the entire Bitcoin network, and use the symmetric encryption algorithm to generate public and private keys to ensure security, currency guarantee and payment trust problems - a perfect solution!
By limiting the total issuance of Bitcoin, the number of currencies generated by mining is slowed down year by year, and eventually the number of bitcoins obtained by each block is infinitely close to zero. The inflation problem caused by excessive currency issuance - a perfect solution!
......
Eric greedily read this nine-page article over and over again. He was very shocked to find that the problems they had encountered in the currency experiment that had troubled them for many years had been completely solved perfectly and elegantly!
He deduced the theory in this article with a pen and a computer, and finally found that this article was a complete electronic money solution.
Although some places seem to be unreasonable, this solution is the only practical solution he has seen for so many years.
He did see some possible shortcomings, such as determining the total amount of money, saving all the data, etc., but these problems do not exist at all in the early stage, and may only occur after a certain stage of development.
Indeed, it's just possible.
For example, the problem of saving all data.
According to this theory, every "point" must save the transaction data of the whole network. If the number of people using Bitcoin is very large, no matter how the data is compressed, the final volume must be very large, and over time, it will become larger and will only increase, but not decrease.
In this way, it may lead to a storage problem. Can such a large hard disk save these data?
In addition, according to the theory of this article, in order to avoid inflation, the total amount of Bitcoin is determined from the beginning, that is, a total of 2 million Bitcoin will be generated in the end. After this amount, mining will no longer generate new currencies.
In Eric's view, in this way, there may be a problem of currency deflation, that is, the currency will continue to appreciate. Because more and more people will use it, but the total number is fixed, the result is obvious.
Eric thought for a long time and finally felt that these two problems may become bottlenecks that limit the future development of Bitcoin.
The emergence of Bitcoin has given him the dawn of an ideal to be realized, so he attaches great importance to this article.
He read the author's name of this article... very strange.
In his impression, it seems that he has never seen the name in the group. He searched for it. Sure enough, this is a new ID.
Who the hell is he?
Computer scientist?
Cryptographer?
Financialist?
Or is there an organization standing behind it?
Eric's only certainty is that the other party must also recognize the purpose and concept of "password punk", otherwise he would not have chosen to publish this article here.
Eric participated in the discussion on this topic for the first time.
"Your paper has been read, and I am deeply shocked. From this paper, I see that your integration of knowledge in the fields of computer science, cryptography, finance and mathematics, and I am also very surprised by your perfect design.
There are two things I have some questions about, and I hope you can give me some advice.
First, the number of Bitcoin users depends entirely on the transaction data chain of the entire network. Over time, the total amount of these data will be a huge number. Is there a solution?
Second, the total number of bitcoins has been determined. Is it possible to cause currency deflation?
......
London, Cambridge, this is the place where Alan Turing, the father of computer science, was trained.
This is a single room. The whole room is very elegant and simple. In addition to the bed, there is only one large bookcase, which is full of all kinds of books, some are brand-new, some are old, and some with the unique labels of the Cambridge University Library. Obviously, these books are borrowed. Come on.
These books, except for a few basic literary books, are basically major works related to mathematics, encryption and decryption.
On the side of the bookshelf, a girl with long black hair is sitting in front of the computer and looking at the monitor, and the content displayed in the monitor is the Bitcoin document released by Lin Hong.
The girl read the document three or four times, and then quietly stared at the monitor without moving, and her thoughts seemed to be flying.
While she was thinking, the soft green silk began to dance spontaneously without wind. If anyone saw this situation at this moment, he would be stunned.
After thinking for a while, the girl came to her senses, and her long hair suddenly fell down and returned to normal.
The girl pulls up the email client, and then quickly enters her own question in the input box:
"It's an interesting idea, but the currency you designed is not without defects. When the computing power controlled by someone's hands exceeds 50% of all the computing power of the main network, that is, 51%, he can do whatever he wants. If it is easier to dig into Bitcoin than others, you can also forge transaction records and then confirm them through your own powerful computing power.
The girl moved the mouse over the "Send" button, but finally stopped.
She thought about it and deleted the broadcast email address of the discussion group, leaving only the only address of GHOSTER, and then pressed the send button.
If the broadcast address is added, the members of the whole discussion group will see the email she sent.
In the end, she chose not to do so.
For no other reason, she is also very interested in Bitcoin and believes that its potential is huge. Although it has this shortcoming, it can become insignificant in the later stage.
She is worried that her words are likely to kill Bitcoin in the cradle. ( To be continued) RQ