{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","title":"ZmnSCPxj [ARCHIVE] wrote","author_name":"ZmnSCPxj [ARCHIVE] (npub1g5…3ms3l)","author_url":"https://yabu.me/npub1g5zswf6y48f7fy90jf3tlcuwdmjn8znhzaa4vkmtxaeskca8hpss23ms3l","provider_name":"njump","provider_url":"https://yabu.me","html":"📅 Original date posted:2021-05-18\n📝 Original message:Good morning Zac,\n\n\u003e VDFs might enable more constant block times, for instance by having a two-step PoW:\n\u003e\n\u003e 1. Use a VDF that takes say 9 minutes to resolve (VDF being subject to difficulty adjustments similar to the as-is). As per the property of VDFs, miners are able show proof of work.\n\u003e\n\u003e 2. Use current PoW mechanism with lower difficulty so finding a block takes 1 minute on average, again subject to as-is difficulty adjustments.\n\u003e\n\u003e As a result, variation in block times will be greatly reduced.\n\nAs I understand it, another weakness of VDFs is that they are not inherently progress-free (their sequential nature prevents that; they are inherently progress-requiring).\n\nThus, a miner which focuses on improving the amount of energy that it can pump into the VDF circuitry (by overclocking and freezing the circuitry), could potentially get into a winner-takes-all situation, possibly leading to even *worse* competition and even *more* energy consumption.\nAfter all, if you can start mining 0.1s faster than the competition, that is a 0.1s advantage where *only you* can mine *in the entire world*.\n\nRegards,\nZmnSCPxj"}