> until someone noticed that custom hardware could compute hashes order of magnitude faster than a pc could. I can't see how this system will proceed any differently.
Bitcoin is an open protocol that anyone can implement, so anyone can build and use faster mining hardware.
This is an open protocol, but with the added restriction that the hardware manufacturer needs to be approved by a trusted authority, and there is a cryptographic chain of trust from the device to the manufacturer to the trusted authority.
Someone could design a "bulk attestation device" which has 10,000 distinct device keys in a single device. But the trusted authority probably won't approve it. And if the hardware manufacturer tries to sneak it past them, they can always revoke the certificate. That's why the "specialised mining hardware" strategy that was so successful with Bitcoin may not work here.
Bitcoin is an open protocol that anyone can implement, so anyone can build and use faster mining hardware.
This is an open protocol, but with the added restriction that the hardware manufacturer needs to be approved by a trusted authority, and there is a cryptographic chain of trust from the device to the manufacturer to the trusted authority.
Someone could design a "bulk attestation device" which has 10,000 distinct device keys in a single device. But the trusted authority probably won't approve it. And if the hardware manufacturer tries to sneak it past them, they can always revoke the certificate. That's why the "specialised mining hardware" strategy that was so successful with Bitcoin may not work here.