Storm
Basics
- From this (3-9-2019) Bitcoin.com article:
"Software developer Awemany has published a potential alternative approach to instant transactions on the Bitcoin Cash network called “delta blocks” or Storm. The idea utilizes weak proof-of-work (PoW) for instant confirmations on Bitcoin Cash.
One side product of the network is when miners generate blocks with reduced difficulty (weaker PoW) called “weak blocks.” The concept Awemany proposes is a scheme that merges multiple weak blocks called delta blocks that allows for “reaching consensus on transaction inclusion, to give merchants the tools needed to estimate double-spending risk.” Basically, the connected BCH blocks are used to denote valid transactions so merchants can be sure instant transactions won’t be double spent. “Individual transactions from their respective transaction sets have to be checked for compatibility,” the whitepaper details. There have been many ideas that revolve around the idea of utilizing weak blocks and engineers have discussed ways to incentivize full nodes and miners to propagate the grouped delta blocks.
Additionally, the developer has proposed a pull request with Bitcoin Unlimited. Awemany’s paper notes that there are some similarities to his idea to Ethereum’s ghost and uncle system. Storm is still far from being ready, the developer stressed, but he believes the code and simulation show the approach is “viable in principle for instant confirmations and that it is in some ways superior to discussed alternatives.”
Criticism:
Software developer Mark Lundeberg thanked Awemany for the research and the in-depth testing involved. Lundeberg also said he was curious to hear what the professor Emin Gun Sirer had to say about the idea and still has issues with zero confirmation pre-consensus. “One of the concerns I have with instant transaction pre-consensus systems is that to have real bite, they need to orphan blocks that have unwanted (but valid) transactions in them, such as double spends, and this creates an incentive for miners to simply mine empty blocks that by definition have no unwanted transactions,” Lundeberg remarked.
- Whitepaper can be found here.
