EC and Fantomette

[sternhenri]

Just listened to Sarah's talk at SBC about Fantomette (which I should clearly have read before and will now read).

It's very cool to see some similarities in what we are trying to do, namely:

• Same network and BAR assumptions
• Same types of incentive-compatibility and threat mitigation goals
• Same underlying mechanisms (VDF/VRF, Random Beacon)

Some things to note:

• Their checkpointing work is really interesting and should be thought about.
• I need to think about grinding in their VRF before VDF use. I believe the reverse (as EC does) is more secure.
• Null blocks for EC is a key improvement (I think, need to read).
• Difference in tipsets use (where they don't enforce a height requirement)