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@ Coco_Ardo⚡🏰 ♻️🏳️🌈
2024-11-18 16:10:43
## So what is the oracle problem (op)?
The op is trying to bring real world information into a digital information network (eg Bitcoin) without relying on one or multiable trusted parties (called a oracle).
So what do I mean by real world informations?
When I ask another peer in a network what 2+3 is, I can always verify the result on my own. But when I ask what the current weather in London is I have to trust that peer or ask other "trusted peer" (for example a british news channels).
**So to conclude math is conciderd trustless**
## So what is PoW?
PoW means proof of work. Its a method to proof that one of your peers did work without trusting someone. But how does it work trustless you might ask? We can't just setup a camera in their room and watch them work since it would be easy for them to cheat. (And the camera would be a trusted partie again.) The answere again is math. But we first need to learn a little bit about algorithm based hashfunctions. Bitcoins PoW uses mainly sha256.
The most important part about hashfunctions (in this context) are that they aren't reversable calculations. What does that mean? When I calculate 2+3=5 I can allways reverse that with enought informations.
If I don't know the 2nd number:
2+?=5
i can reverse that by calculation -2 on both sides:
?=5-2 .
That lets me know that ?=3 .
But you can't do that with hashfunctions. The hashfunction Sha1 with an input of the number 137 looks like this:
Sha-1(137) = e1a864f0b77f6c89794827a9035355dc8d052622
But just a small change to 138 gives you a complety diffrent result:
Sha-1(138)= 56ad4d4deaec98465c419b4a8ea7bfc1ed38c4d9
Since there is no way to tell if your input was below/above 100 or if it even was a number (because you can input text as well) the only method of getting the input is by trying out one input after the other.
Test it out yourself: [Sha1 calculator](https://xorbin.com/tools/sha1-hash-calculator).
## How does Bitcoins PoW use the hashfunctions?
When you give someone the task to get you a specific result of sha-1 they have to guess a lot of inputs to get the result. This is conciderd work. Providing the right input is the proof that your peer did work for that (or that they were lucky).Their solution however is quick and easy verifyable by you. Since calculating only one hash takes far less than a second.
Short note: Bitcoin actually however uses a range of results that are concidered the right result (Number must start with x amount of zeros). That's how Bitcoin makes sure you need to provide real work to secure or attack bitcoin.
## How do I get other information trustless?
"But wait?! You didn't explain how I can get the weather in London". You're right. Because getting these type of information trustless is impossible. Work is the only realworld information you can get trustless.
You can reduce the trust by having several validators. But the validators could team up to betrail you. Or there could be a mesurement mistake effecting several validators at once. Or diffrent validators provide diffret results. Who do you trust? The result that was provided the most? So spamming becomes the truth? Or the information gets altered on the way too you. Or your client censors certain information for you.
There is an insane amount of attack vectors. Concluding: Trust is allways a terrible risk. No matter how little. Trust = information centralization.
Examples of real world information:
Price of stocks, stablecoins (price of a currency), a picture, music, videos.
**Cryptocurrencies that use oracles are relying on trust and are doomed to get centralised.**
**When they claim to be decentralised you now know they are a scam.**
Distributed doesn't equal decentralised.
## This article is reworked from its release on Nostr:
nostr:nevent1qqs8yzntzvun4alupatcupetdqaaf4k609hm30cjrggyt2y602h8fxspzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezumt0d5hsygxy3fhmpxsr2k93an6srh3vuzdvjddu8lpdw0h4kktr0e6meh0j25psgqqqqqqserd69u
## I posted it original on my Twitter on 07th Jan 2023. I reposted it too Nostr, because X is closed knowledge.