3

I am new to IOTA and would like to understand how nodes are incentivised to be truthful when approving transactions?

Bitcoin:

Say a miner approves a tx that is invalid (say bc it double spends). It mines it into a block. It gets X btc for doing that.

Problem: it is a on a "historical path" that others do no recognise so its X btc are worthless.

Conclusion, it won't want to approve invalid tx.

IOTA:

A node verifies two tx. Say one of them happens to be invalid.

What happens next?

hartmut
  • 168
  • 6

1 Answers1

1

By verifying a transaction that is invalid, a transaction itself becomes invalid and will never be verified by other honest transactions (i.e. the transaction is on an "invalid path" that others do not recognize so its X Iotas are worthless).

So:

What happens next?

Nothing. The transaction that happens to verify an invalid one will never be confirmed.

For details, take a look at Iotas Tip-Selection Algorithm Documentation.

Zauz
  • 4,454
  • 15
  • 42
  • Could you explain in more detail how "By verifying a transaction that is invalid, a transaction itself becomes invalid" please? – hartmut Jun 23 '18 at 19:39
  • @hartmut I added a link. Your question is addressed in section 3.3 – Zauz Jun 23 '18 at 20:01