The Alpha Approaches: Conjunctive Query Containment being implemented for proof search optimization and the question of mechanism design
By now people may have learned that Ohad has finally completed proof extraction by looking at Github. The question some asked me from my previous post on the topic of proof extraction is "why proof extraction?". It turns out that this mystery is solved as I have been able to piece together that proof extraction is a necessary step for conjunctive query containment.
Understanding Conjunctive Query Containment
What CQC does is optimize queries. A conjunctive query to be more specific is a query involving logic, using logical operators like AND, OR, NEGATION, etc. We know from understanding proof extraction that proof search is a going to be a very frequently used in the Tau alpha and that when you have to search a database frequently (a proof database) there is great benefit to doing every optimization you can.
In other words from what I can see the time and effort investment which Ohad put in to put in place this feature is far exceeded by the benefits long term this optimization will be able to provide. I see this decision as strategic (most bang for buck) optimization decision, and while there may have been other easier optimizations to implement it is also true that to get this one right is better considering how we expect the alpha to be used.
The critical importance of mechanism design
It is my opinion that the success of the alpha will depend on whether or not the team gets the mechanism design right. I myself will be doing all I can to encourage the team to put a research emphasis on tackling mechanism design with the same voracity that went into these technical optimizations such as CQC, and for the same reasons. In my opinion the success of Bitcoin boils down to mechanism design. I do not think it's anything technical which made Bitcoin stand out because a lot of the cryptography wasn't new and a lot of the techniques weren't new, but what was new was the mechanism design which encouraged human participants to mine, to hoard, to adopt the behaviors to defend the network because the network rewarded the human participants who adopted those behaviors.
In my opinion the first major discussion on the alpha under the topic of building Tauchain should be in my opinion how best to implement a mechanism design which can facilitate a robust ecosystem of participants.
Summary of technical milestones and conclusion
- Proof Extraction successfully implemented (w/ negation).
- CQC close to being implemented (proof search optimization)
- Alpha launch is near and details are now being worked out on what the alpha will look like initially, what it can do.
- There will have to be benchmark results and testing to determine exactly what technical properties will be possible which will determine the initial scope of the alpha.
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvoting this reply.