The Time-warp Soft Fork & Bitcoin Cash's Difficulty Adjustment Drama - NADO 5

In this episode of the Van Wirdum Sjorsnado, Sjors explains the “time-warp attack” on Bitcon and Aaron explains the unfolding drama with the bcash difficulty adjustment.

Helpful Links:

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/miners-are-milking-bcashs-difficulty-adjustments-and-why-problem1

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/why-bcash-mining-shouldnt-affect-bitcoin-much-bitcoin-mining-could-ruin-bcash

https://read.cash/@jtoomim/dark-secrets-of-the-grasberg-daa-a9239fb6

https://blog.bitcoinabc.org/2020/07/23/announcing-the-grasberg-daa/

https://github.com/TheBlueMatt/bips/blob/cleanup-softfork/bip-XXXX.mediawiki

Chapters

00:00:00 Block timestamps and difficulty retargeting

00:07:10 How the time-warp attack lowers difficulty

00:17:51 A proposed time-warp fix and consensus cleanup

00:23:18 Why the expected block interval is slightly off

00:25:23 Bitcoin Cash difficulty disputes: the background

00:29:15 Miner switching and the minority-chain problem

00:33:50 Emergency adjustment and mining the algorithm

00:38:54 Replacing the emergency adjustment

00:42:47 Fast retargeting and isolated-node security

00:44:52 ASERT, Grasberg and correcting historical drift

Support the Show!

Follow Bitcoin Magazine on Twitter @BitcoinMagazine

Follow Aaron van Wirdum @AaronvanW

Follow Sjors Provoost @provoost

Music:

Song Title: Segwit Sounds

By: The NakamoTones

Album: Citadel Music

Produced by: Bitcoin Audio