To: Bitcoin Protocol Discussion <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
From: Jefferson Carpenter <jeffersoncarpenter2@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <58fa85b8-cba3-ee34-8c96-41c6c7bfbf9c@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2018 16:31:52 -0600
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Subject: [bitcoin-dev] Upgrading PoW algorithm
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Bitcoin's difficulty will be maxed out within about 400 years, by 
Moore's law.  (After that - supposing the software does not crash when 
difficulty overflows - block time will start decreasing, and it will not 
take long before blocks are mined faster than photons can be sent across 
the planet).

Bitcoin is the dominant cryptocurrency today, as the first mover: the 
perfectly fair worldwide game of inventing the cryptocurrency has been 
played and won.  However, unfortunately, it has a built-in end date: 
about 400 years from now.  After that, it won't necessarily be clear 
what the dominant cryptocurrency is.  It might be a lot like VHS vs 
Betamax, and a lot of people could lose a lot of money.  It seems to me, 
this could be mitigated by planning today for what we are going to do 
when Bitcoin finally breaks 400 years from now.

Are there any distinct plans today for migrating to a PoW supporting an 
even higher difficulty?