Why TecraCoin has introduced the MTP protocol?
Blockchain security
One of the most important features, that differs blockchain from other technologies, is security. The Bitcoin blockchain has never been hacked (there was only one an unintended fork in March 2013 due to a bug in version 0.8 of the bitcoin software and lasted for 6 hours; https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-network-shaken-by-blockchain-fork-1363144448), being nowadays the most secure payment technology in the world (actually, the most secure of any IT technologies). This is because of the genius of its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto and his vision, which many others later have followed.
It does not mean, that every blockchain is similarly secure. It is not. There are some poorly designed ones, which suffered some attacks. For example:
· Monacoin, bitcoin gold, zencash, verge and litecoin cash (see: https://www.coindesk.com/blockchains-feared-51-attack-now-becoming-regular);
· ‘double spend” on Ethereum Classic in January 2019.
“David Vorick, cofounder of the blockchain-based file storage platform Sia, predicts that 51% attacks will continue to grow in frequency and severity” (see: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612974/once-hailed-as-unhackable-blockchains-are-now-getting-hacked/).
Blockchain community
Blockchain is also a technology, that strongly relies on community. In case of technology based on central servers, people, users, are almost not important, at all. At the heart of blockchain is decentralization. The idea of a new blockchain may come from one or several persons, but later, in order to be secure, the specific blockchain should be protected by unified forces of people spread around the world.
As I recently published (on slides from the presentation in Bangkok, see: https://twitter.com/TecraCoin/status/1180044038143168512), there are four kings of subcommunities necessary for any blockchain startup:
1. Software developers,
2. Transaction validators (‘miners’),
3. Blockchain users,
4. Investors.
All of them should be decentralized. Also Vitalik Buterin insisted on having various layers of decentralization (https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/the-meaning-of-decentralization-a0c92b76a274).
ASICs threat
One of the threats to blockchain is the centralization of mining. This is especially visible in the case of Bitcoin. The growing price of BTC led to designing special microchips to increase the speed of calculations, to increase the chance of winning the reward (in BTC) every c. 10 minutes. Here, we see the threats of centralization of production if chips and centralization of mining power (or pools). The entity, who has a large share of computing power (in case of PoW), may run an attack. Some of the readers might read about so-called 51% attack (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Majority_attack). However, a careful reader of Satoshi’s paper should remember that it is also possible to run this kind of attack with even smaller hash-power (with smaller probability, of course). That is why it is so much recommended to wait for confirmations.
You may not remember, but there were situations (in 2014), where some Bitcoin mining pools had more than 51% of total hash-power (https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184427-one-bitcoin-group-now-controls-51-of-total-mining-power-threatening-entire-currencys-safety). Luckily, 51% attack was not performed, and the largest pool has divided itself into smaller to increase the security of Bitcoin blockchain.
This however is still a threat because of the centralization of ASIC producers. Bitmain owns two largest mines: BTC.com and Antpool (https://www.ccn.com/bitmains-mining-pools-now-control-nearly-51-percent-of-the-bitcoin-hashrate/). At BitcoinSV blockchain the situation is much more dangerous (https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2019/04/26/calvin-ayre-coingeek-bitcoin-sv-hash-rate-51-percent-double-spend/). Many smaller blockchains have even larger problems. In case of most extreme situations (see the projects from the end of the CMC list), the blockchain is run by one node only! That is not safe, at all.
ASIC resistance
In order to protect the blockchain from one vector of attacks it is recommended to increase democratization (and decentralization) of it from the point of view of mining equipment. ASICs led to centralization of production of mining rigs, first, and then of the mining itself.
In order to protect the network from such kinds of threats, blockchain developers have invented some new approaches to it (see: https://medium.com/@tecracoin/centralisation-of-mining-and-some-projects-approach-to-that-7a8f31fdb393). A famous approach was adopted by Monero, which changes its hashing algorithm every 6 months. The other solution is MTP: the Merkle Tree Proof PoW protocol.
It does not make a blockchain immune of 51% attacks, but significantly decreases risks connected with them. That is why the MTP provides the ‘ASIC-resistance’ (and not the ‘ASIC-proof’).
Our implementation
Since TecraCoin is a fork of Zcoin blockchain, we followed its way in case of ASIC-resistance, too. Zcoin has already implemented MTP protocol on its mainnet in December 2018 (https://zcoin.io/mtp-faq-all-you-need-to-know/). MTP proofs require 200kB in each block, what makes about 20 GB of disk space. That is a lot. Moreover, this protocol requires also GPUs with at least 4.5 GB of RAM. Hence, the safety requires some sacrifice.
We know it will not make the community of TecraCoin very happy, but it is important for it in a long run. The community will have to update their wallets to be prepare to the hard-fork, which is scheduled on 10 October, 12:00 CET (https://github.com/tecracoin/tecracoin/commit/94004de7c1e1e29be6be80987078057cd63ab533).
The new wallets are available here:
First of all — backup your wallet.
https://github.com/tecracoin/tecracoin/releases/tag/v1.6.0.3 . We have desktop wallets released only (mobile ones are ready and waiting for launching; they will be available soon).
In case somebody does not update the wallet, he will have to re-index it later (https://tecracoin.io/news/how-to-reindex-wallet).
