The Biggest Difference Between EarthBucks and Bitcoin is the Domain Name

The biggest difference between EarthBucks and Bitcoin is that EarthBucks mines must have a domain name which enables instant transactions and eliminates reorgs. What may seem like a subtle difference, having a domain name, is actually dramatic, because by simply being able to identify a mine by its domain name, each mine can maintain a list of active mines and poll them instantly to vote on the validity of transactions and blocks. If a majority of mines agree on a transaction or a block, you can know that it will be accepted by the network before it is even mined.

One of the biggest irritations with Bitcoin is that transactions require multiple confirmations, meaning it must be included inside many blocks, before it is considered final. This is because the longest chain can change at any time, and you must wait for it to be improbable, but not impossible, that the chain will change. With EarthBucks, because each mine is identified with a domain name, you can simply query the mines as to whether they regard a transaction or block as valid. If a majority of mines agree, you can be confident that the transaction or block will be accepted by the network.

Bitcoin does not have an identity system for mines. Presumably, Satoshi Nakamoto intended mines to be anonymous. But mines are never actually anonymous in practice, because it is easy to discover through network analysis and other means who is operating a mine (also called a “mining pool”). EarthBucks recognizes the practical reality that mines are not anonymous, and instead embraces the identity system of the internet by requiring that every mine have a domain name. By simply authenticating the domain name against the blockchain, you can easily verify that a domain name is correct, and ask it questions.

On Bitcoin, the only way to poll a mine is to wait for mines to insert data into the version number of the block. It takes many blocks to assess a majority vote of the network. But on EarthBucks, because every mine has a domain name and because the P2P protocol acts over the web, mines can poll other mines at any time by simply sending a request to the domain name. The most important thing to poll for is the validity of a transaction or block. If a majority of mines agree (or, technically, a majority of mining power, measured by the fraction of recent blocks), you can be confident that the transaction or block will be accepted by the network.

Bitcoin is a remarkable invention, but is not flawless. EarthBucks improves on Bitcoin in many ways, such as GPU mining, big endian, and other advances, but the most important improvement is that EarthBucks embraces the identity system of the internet, domain names, for mines. This simple change enables instant transactions and eliminates reorgs, making EarthBucks a more reliable and useful system than Bitcoin.