Incentive Driven Behaviour
https://player.vimeo. com/video/674832021
There are a number of goals that node operators and other participants in the block creation process will exhibit as a natural response to competing for the rewards on-offer. We can break these down as follows:
Create dense, high bandwidth connectivity The design of Bitcoin is balanced to push node operators to have a dense layer of connectivity to other nodes on the network. These high density connections are the fabric of the so-called 'Small World Network' within which, each node is connected to a majority of the other nodes using high bandwidth, low latency links, allowing for propagation of transaction and block data at high speed. https://player.vimeo. com/video/649874404\
Develop advanced, highly parallel computing systems The nature of the system is such that miners are always incentivised to be able to process transactions much faster than they typically arrive on the network in order to deal with peak events without loss of service. In the event of a prolonged period of lost connectivity, the node must be capable of quickly downloading and validating all of the activity on the network that has taken place on the chain since it went offline in order to have up-to-date knowledge of the UTXO set. https://player.vimeo. com/video/649875507\
Find higher density and lower cost means of storing data As the blockchain accumulates data over time, the custodians of that information must constantly expand their storage capacity. This is the case for both live memory systems (e.g. RAM) which store the UTXO set and transaction pools, and for long term storage systems that hold the full blockchain data and are designed to persist for many years. https://player.vimeo. com/video/649874859\
Find low cost, high availability sources of energy
Because Proof of Work is an energy intensive activity which nodes are required to perform in order to win blocks on the network, there is a very strong incentive for node operators to be able to access that energy for the lowest possible cost. If they are able to access their energy at lower cost, they can find solutions to their blocks more profitably, thereby enabling them to expand their reach and develop a better system. https://player.vimeo. com/video/649874932\
Build a strong and diverse user base For Bitcoin to be successful long term, the transaction rate must increase to the point that the declining block subsidy is offset by the accumulation of transaction fees, without causing an undue burden to be pushed down upon the users of the network. This requires that a large user base form around the network, who use it for diverse applications in order to remove any reliance on a particular subset of the population or purpose. https://player.vimeo. com/video/649875075\
Ensure that legal and regulatory support for the network exists The biggest existential risk to the network comes from a lack of acceptance of it by state level organisations as a compliant and lawful tool that can be usable for the purposes of commerce and exchange. Ensuring that governments, lawmakers and regulatory bodies understand the network’s function well enough to legislate its use cases gives it the best chance of achieving longevity and persisting as a technology. https://player.vimeo. com/video/649875155
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