Satoshi: "The Core Design is Set in Stone"- but can you identify the Core Design?
There is a tremendous confusion over these words.
"Set in stone" is a phrase which does not mean "something that shouldn't be changed."
"Set in stone" means something cannot be changed.
Satoshi never said the protocol couldn't be changed. Since he himself changed the protocol significantly, it wouldn't make any sense
for him to say that since it was patently not true.
The part that can't be changed - even if you try - is what's written above: the core design of how Bitcoin works by broadcasting
txns, finding and building blocks and validating and building upon blocks made by others. That's how Bitcoin works.
Why can't it be changed?
Quite simply because the incentives pay the
participants to keep performing these steps, and punish those who don't.
So change the protocol all you want. Satoshi did! it's plain to see that anything that can be changed was
perforce not "set in stone." So try to change whatever you like. If it's the part that's "set in stone," you won't succeed. You will have wasted your time, nothing more.
