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The blockchain trilemma

Ethereum Asked on February 26, 2021

I understand that the generic blockchain faces a problem where it can choose to optimize between scalability, security and decentralization. I can see easily why scalability and decentralization are at odds (for those who haven’t seen it, a great blog post here explains this).

However, what does it mean to have a blockchain that is scalable and decentralized but insecure? No matter how I formulate the problem, I always end up at a compromise between block size/rate and decentralization.

One Answer

Neither the hundreds of blogposts around the so-called Trilemma nor Zooko’s original triangle depict reality and are far from mathematical proofs.

Just like you, I cannot picture good cases, where security and decentralization are at odds and I would say in most cases they actually go hand-in-hand. If Bitcoin gets too centralized (mining pools) the risk of a double spend attack originating from one pool increases. If EOS’ block producers need to agree on blacklists via e-mail, it does not sound too secure either, but at least they’re scalable.

Eventually I would say it depends on the strict definition of those terms, in order for such triangle to be a meaningful concept. If security is exchanged with consistency, the storyline changes. And security itself is more of a base layer, because without security, do you have anything of value?

Answered by Marcellvs on February 26, 2021

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