Atalanta: Monero's Reservist Army

Here’s the follow-up to a recent post about Qubic’s attack on Monero’s blockchain. There, I argued that Behavioral Economics was the answer. Otherwise, people can just play the ‘loose/aggressive’ tactic until it works.

It would be wrong, however, to think that technical strategies don’t play a part. This post is an add-on. It will get pretty nerdy. I think Monero needs something like a wasp’s sting. It needs a way of causing harm to them who would cause it harm.

My suggestion is a reservist army of sorts. Monero needs people on standby willing to help when a red alert is sounded.

Why Reservists?

Reservists? As in Dad's Army?1 Why can’t the Monero community just get more ‘miners’.2 Sure, that would be nice. Meanwhile, there are lots of people who can not or will not set up a mining-device. Maybe they’re lazy. Maybe they have curbs on their enthusiasm, like dear electricity in their region. It doesn’t matter. We must just accept that they need different incentives. Even ‘willing to help’ shouldn’t be taken for granted.

But if ‘willing to help’ is not to be taken for granted, how can they be much good at all?

Also, there’s the other extreme. If the reservists end up working out too well, why wouldn’t they be mustered in the employ of a malevolent force?

The answer lies in potentiality and focus. A lightning-bolt cannot happen without all the electrical-potential building up in the moist clouds. That energy seems impotent; and it is, until it suddenly focusses.

Reservists are not serious people!

Monero’s reservist army will be players of a new video game.

I call it ‘Atalanta’.

This game will have typical incentives: dopamine hits, and in-game rewards. The rewards must have real-world value. The cryptocurrencies wownero (WOW) or minotari (XTM) spring to mind, given their kinship to XMR.3 Let’s go with WOW for now.

I won’t try to dream up the game itself, because I don’t even play video games.

In Ancient Greek myth, Atalanta raced Milanion, but stooped to pick up golden apples, and so kept falling behind.

In my proposed video game, there would be a race to rehash recent blocks from Monero’s blockchain. The Atalanta players would do a kind of pseudo-mining. Whenever they caught up to the real blockchain, they would start again. They would only work on randomly-chosen blocks. In other words, there would be no ‘chain’ to the blocks. Actually, in one special and rare circumstance, there would be. That’s the money-shot.

Don’t picture the actual game as a race set in Ancient Greek times. This rehashing of Monero-blocks would happen in the background. It would be set up in the game as a bonus. The link to Monero and being in a reservist army would be low-key, and certainly not the raison d’etre. Players would always play for kicks and for WOW. That’s how we handle the different incentives.

The disregard would go both ways. Normally, the real Monero-nodes4 would take no heed of this pseudo-mining. After all, the blocks have already been published. That’s how we handle, mostly, the risk of mustering a malevolent force.

Atalanta: How it works

You don’t need to know this, but your computer has downloaded the eighteen most recent blocks of the Monero blockchain. An authenticated server5 sends your computer six golden apples. The ‘golden apple’ is a small piece of information necessary for solving a puzzle, i.e. rehashing a block. It is an ID tied to an actual block and a ‘nonce’.6

There’s a range of eighteen blocks; they’re the blocks your computer has downloaded in the background; and the six golden apples come from that range. Six of eighteen. If we number the blocks 1-18, then the blocks at play in the round might be, for example: 2, 4, 8, 9, 12, 17.

You choose one of those golden apples and let your computer try to win the contest by crunching the numbers.

Luck is mixed in. Say you choose golden apple (block) 12. If only a few others choose that golden apple, your chances are boosted.

You’ll either win the puzzle, and get a reward, or someone else will.

Now, about a minute and a half later, all six golden apples have been won. You can see that on your screen. That’s not the end of the round. There’s a short pause, and then the server sends you the platinum apple. The platinum apple is almost identical to a golden apple, but applies to the newest Monero block, which didn’t exist when the round started.7 It’s also different because it’s a battle royale. Everyone playing Atalanta tries to solve the puzzle for the platinum apple.

The round is finished when someone solves the platinum-apple-puzzle. Atalanta has caught up. Now she starts again. Six more randomly-chosen golden apples from the eighteen most recent blocks are computed according to the RandomX algorithm.8

That’s the way it works unless something strange happens, and a Red Alert is activated. Not that you, mashing buttons and toking on bong, will notice a Red Alert. Remember that we don’t want to change incentives or test loyalty. If you are aware of the nuts and bolts, you will know that, in Red Alert Mode, the server will send golden apples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And the platinum apple will be different. Let’s examine this in more detail.

Red Alert Mode

No prizes for guessing that here’s where the reservist army gets mobilized.

Remember that part of the golden apple is the ID? The ID is the first six digits of the Block Hash.9 Since Block Hashes are publically available, Atalanta doesn’t need to ask the server about IDs. Computers running Atalanta monitor the blockchain, and know if there is a ‘reorg’ and some of the eighteen most recent blocks have changed; namely, the IDs won’t match. Atalanta trusts the server whence it gets the golden apples. It must do; it’s not part of the Monero network. The mismatch triggers Red Alert Mode. Here’s what happens:

  1. For the next round, the server sends golden apples for the (older, non-reorganized) blocks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
  2. Block 1 of this will be the previous platinum apple, not the new block caused by the reorg.10
  3. Game goes as usual.
  4. Meanwhile, likely, a new block has been published on the reorganized blockchain. (This would normally be the platinum apple). It is ignored.
  5. The platinum apple is actually a template of the latest Monero transactions waiting to be put in a block.
  6. The server now has a chain; seven consecutive blocks, valid on the Monero blockchain. It is neck-and-neck with the malevolent, reorganized blockchain.
  7. Instead of randomly making six new golden apples, the next round is a repeat of step 5, i.e. a platinum apple made from unpublished transactions.
  8. This will make a chain of eight consecutive blocks and likely beat the malevolent, reorganized blockchain.
  9. Atalanta offers its mini-blockchain to the Monero-nodes for acceptance.
  10. If the Monero-nodes do accept, then, like in Doctor Who, time is put right again, and all original transactions are valid at their right times.

One might think of Atalanta as a reserve mining pool. One might add that it’s a reserve mining pool with a procedure to stop it from being a threat, and miners who don’t know or don’t care.

The wasp’s sting is all this hashpower ready to go. It’s the miscreant’s awareness that he could spend millions but be beaten by a few hundred ‘red-eye jedis’.

Flaws

Some blatant flaws spring to mind. Since this post is already too long, I’ll try to deal with them next time.

  1. The 70s British sitcom in which a team of old and incompetent reservists prepare for Hitler’s invasion of Britain. It is arguably the best-ever comedy about that British virtue of ‘muddling through’. (Return)
  2. These computers defend the network by competing in a friendly way to do the official publishing of the transaction log, i.e. the blockchain. For a simple but comprehensive explanation of how Proof-of-Work blockchains work, download a free chapter from my book here on my website. (Return)
  3. If these cryptos are worthless, then I don’t see a problem with doling out something like pirate (ARRR). The two criteria are that it should be private by default (otherwise won’t fly with the Monero-crowd); and it should be ubiquitous and cheap (otherwise we won’t be able to afford ongoing game rewards). (Return)
  4. Nodes are the computers (and other devices) taking active part on the network, validating transactions, and either checking or helping to make the blockchain. All miners are nodes, but not all nodes are miners. (Return)
  5. DNSSEC (Return)
  6. Number used once. A number inserted into a standard mathematical formula to make solving that formula unpredictable. (Return)
  7. The Atalanta-running computer will have been watching the blockchain for it. The pause in the game gives time for all computers to download it. It’s 60-100KB. There is a small chance that there will be no new block. I will go over this outcome in a subsequent post. Suffice to say that it doesn’t matter. (Return)
  8. This is Monero’s unique mathematical algorithm; the mathematical equation which computers use to solve the puzzle of ‘hashing’ each block on the blockchain. RandomX is cunningly designed to be most suitably solved by a regular CPU; thus making the process of launching a custom-built device for mining Monero extremely uneconomical. (Return)
  9. Every block on the Monero blockchain is identified with a Block Hash. It looks something like this: d7ff04a7187e62d4a094fbd781870f64d0ff7974e23326f4a89fde0e765fc412. The golden apple ID for this would be: d7ff04. (Return)
  10. Different nonces cause completely different puzzles to solve. (Return)

Back to the index of blog posts

Tags