Have we been building blockchains wrong? | Longest path search

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Probably the first in a small series of short-to-medium essays outlining some weird but provocative thoughts about the current state of affairs in how we're doing things. A lot of what I will write here is a combination of a bunch of little tidbits from many places, including but certainly not limited to protocols that already exist, papers we've written, twitter, forum posts, papers we haven't written, random conversations with people much smarter than I, musings after a few glasses of wine, etc. I claim no original thoughts, but sometimes it's good to just write it all down in some vaguely-readable way, so here we are. Ok. Let's say we're on one of the most decentralized networks in the world, which I will leave unspecified. And I'd like to access my account balance from my phone to make a transaction. What do? Well, naturally, we connect to some random AWS server, which claims it has the latest state of the chain, then download that state onto your phone. Ideally that balance is rig

Have we been building blockchains wrong? – Longest path search Have we been building blockchains wrong? 09 May, 2025 Probably the first in a small series of short-to-medium essays outlining some weird but provocative thoughts about the current state of affairs in how we're doing things. A lot of what I will write here is a combination of a bunch of little tidbits from many places, including but certainly not limited to protocols that already exist , papers we've written , twitter , forum posts , papers we haven't written , random conversations with people much smarter than I , musings after a

Have we been building blockchains wrong? | Longest path search

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