6 Things You Missed from the State of Bitcoin

bitcoinmasterlord

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Quote from: DooMAD on August 02, 2015, 05:15:21 AM

Quote from: bitcoinmasterlord on August 01, 2015, 10:34:40 AM

Quote from: DooMAD on July 23, 2015, 12:58:02 PM

I honestly don't understand the concern people have with whichever country happens to have the most hashing power.

I think it's simply an emotional thing. It's easier to trust your own countrymen since you are more near to them. So trusting some other country at the other end of the world is a bit harder.

Still, if the protocol itself is borderless and not making biased judgements based on region alone, maybe some of its users could learn a thing or two from that. You can't rationally tout the merits of a global system and then start casting aspersions when the rest of the world gets involved. If anyone is seriously thinking that people in country X are somehow less trustworthy than people in country Y to help secure the network, they need to spend some time considering what type of person they are. As long as the hash power is still reasonably well distributed around the globe, this is not an issue. Maybe if one nation had more hash power than all of the others combined, that could be considered a problem, but some of the views expressed in this thread just sound like baseless discrimination to me.

I hope so. At the end we are all human and living on the same earth.

But i think humanity made some huge steps in the right direction here. There are opposite movements, like IS but still... i see hope.

SebastianJu

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Quote from: Amph on August 03, 2015, 10:25:40 AM

Quote from: NorrisK on August 02, 2015, 05:20:19 AM

Quote from: Amph on July 23, 2015, 07:49:51 AM

"China-based miners are now the majority"

i don't like this part too much, i'm worried that one day they might work together and attempt to double spend via 51% or other attack, remember that even at 40% some attacks are practicable without six confirmations, or if someone manage to hack the pools and do some malicious things

I'm not really afraid of this. Unless the mining farms are ran by Chinese government. Chinese are entrepeneurs and risk takers. They want to make profit, not destroy their investment...

well i know but what if a malicious individual take control of their machines(i guess they are pointed all to a server) and start to do an attack by creating his own fork with his persona qt node

it can happen, certainly possible, or what would happen if the price of bitcoin tank too much and there will be no more serious profit for them, i guess they will go all-in and do an attack...

You are right. Such attack is possible but i believe only for the reason to destroy or hurt bitcoin very hefty. It would not even be good enough to earn money by shorting bitcoins since when such thing happens then bitcoin exchanges will be bankrupt instantly. So no way to gain from it.

Someone with miners would have no gain too of course.

So even when a hacker would hack the majority of big pools and doublespends... he could not turn that money into fiat. I mean how should he? Exchanges would be cautious and would get notice of the attack fast.

So there is no way to do that with profit in mind. The only reason to do it would be to kill bitcoin.

And exactly that gives me thinking. Why is no agency or government killing bitcoin when its still small. I mean the countries have the ability to hack practically everything. It would be no problem for them.

So the question comes to me why they should allow bitcoin to grow, they came down to normal local currencies pretty fast mostly. But bitcoin is fine? I only can assume they like the semi anonymity and try to find out things with blockchain analysis.

Bitcoinpro

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no one with 51% would dream of wreaking the system, they know that people will have backups and whichever

miners refuse to reload the real blockchain will expose themselves,

anderson00673

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Quote from: Kprawn on August 02, 2015, 06:37:49 AM

Why is everyone so worried about China and the 51% attack? Let's say this happens... what will happen?

1. Everyone will sell their Bitcoins {Why would you want a currency that can be double spent?}
2. No merchant in his right mind would accept Bitcoin as a payment method.
3. Centralized control would be the end of Bitcoin
4. People would stop mining
5. People will not host nodes anymore

The whole network will collapse and the Chinese will be left with a whole warehouse full of worthless hardware. Roll Eyes

Yeah exactly. This is why I don't think too many people are making a serious effort to hack the blockchain or bitcoins's technology. Because if they did do something like that or a 51% attack, then btc would become worthless. Would a bank robber risk life and limb to break into a vault he knew was empty? No, I think the bad guys are after individuals via scams, phishing, and things like that.

And why should we be concerned that China has a lot of hashing power? We would have more hashing power in the usa if we were not getting raped so hard by the electricity companies. That is a chilling effect right there, and a way to concentrate wealth away from the average person. So thanks electricity companies, because of your greed China is becoming the leader in this area.

Amph

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Quote from: NorrisK on August 02, 2015, 05:20:19 AM

Quote from: Amph on July 23, 2015, 07:49:51 AM

"China-based miners are now the majority"

i don't like this part too much, i'm worried that one day they might work together and attempt to double spend via 51% or other attack, remember that even at 40% some attacks are practicable without six confirmations, or if someone manage to hack the pools and do some malicious things

I'm not really afraid of this. Unless the mining farms are ran by Chinese government. Chinese are entrepeneurs and risk takers. They want to make profit, not destroy their investment...

well i know but what if a malicious individual take control of their machines(i guess they are pointed all to a server) and start to do an attack by creating his own fork with his persona qt node

it can happen, certainly possible, or what would happen if the price of bitcoin tank too much and there will be no more serious profit for them, i guess they will go all-in and do an attack...

BillyBobZorton

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Quote from: Amph on July 23, 2015, 07:49:51 AM

"China-based miners are now the majority"

i don't like this part too much, i'm worried that one day they might work together and attempt to double spend via 51% or other attack, remember that even at 40% some attacks are practicable without six confirmations, or if someone manage to hack the pools and do some malicious things

It's a matter of time that US becomes number one in mining with their superior technology. China isn't smart enough to develop technology, but US will come up with new miners with specialized CPU that will put them in the top of the game when they realize you can't ignore BTC and every nation of the world first goal should be to become #1 in the network.

Kprawn

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Why is everyone so worried about China and the 51% attack? Let's say this happens... what will happen?

1. Everyone will sell their Bitcoins {Why would you want a currency that can be double spent?}
2. No merchant in his right mind would accept Bitcoin as a payment method.
3. Centralized control would be the end of Bitcoin
4. People would stop mining
5. People will not host nodes anymore

The whole network will collapse and the Chinese will be left with a whole warehouse full of worthless hardware. Roll Eyes

LiteCoinGuy

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In Satoshi I Trust

Quote from: NorrisK on August 02, 2015, 05:20:19 AM

Quote from: Amph on July 23, 2015, 07:49:51 AM

"China-based miners are now the majority"

i don't like this part too much, i'm worried that one day they might work together and attempt to double spend via 51% or other attack, remember that even at 40% some attacks are practicable without six confirmations, or if someone manage to hack the pools and do some malicious things

I'm not really afraid of this. Unless the mining farms are ran by Chinese government. Chinese are entrepeneurs and risk takers. They want to make profit, not destroy their investment...

i guess at some point in the future governments will start mining farms. i know that sounds crazy. maybe in 10 years or so.

NorrisK

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Quote from: Amph on July 23, 2015, 07:49:51 AM

"China-based miners are now the majority"

i don't like this part too much, i'm worried that one day they might work together and attempt to double spend via 51% or other attack, remember that even at 40% some attacks are practicable without six confirmations, or if someone manage to hack the pools and do some malicious things

I'm not really afraid of this. Unless the mining farms are ran by Chinese government. Chinese are entrepeneurs and risk takers. They want to make profit, not destroy their investment...

DooMAD

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Leave no FUD unchallenged

Quote from: bitcoinmasterlord on August 01, 2015, 10:34:40 AM

Quote from: DooMAD on July 23, 2015, 12:58:02 PM

I honestly don't understand the concern people have with whichever country happens to have the most hashing power.

I think it's simply an emotional thing. It's easier to trust your own countrymen since you are more near to them. So trusting some other country at the other end of the world is a bit harder.

Still, if the protocol itself is borderless and not making biased judgements based on region alone, maybe some of its users could learn a thing or two from that. You can't rationally tout the merits of a global system and then start casting aspersions when the rest of the world gets involved. If anyone is seriously thinking that people in country X are somehow less trustworthy than people in country Y to help secure the network, they need to spend some time considering what type of person they are. As long as the hash power is still reasonably well distributed around the globe, this is not an issue. Maybe if one nation had more hash power than all of the others combined, that could be considered a problem, but some of the views expressed in this thread just sound like baseless discrimination to me.

bitcoinmasterlord

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Quote from: DooMAD on July 23, 2015, 12:58:02 PM

I honestly don't understand the concern people have with whichever country happens to have the most hashing power.

I think it's simply an emotional thing. It's easier to trust your own countrymen since you are more near to them. So trusting some other country at the other end of the world is a bit harder.

It would be a little bit less harder when miners wouldn't proof all the time that they would do anything to get an advantage in mining.

bitcoinmasterlord

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Quote from: Amph on July 23, 2015, 07:49:51 AM

"China-based miners are now the majority"

i don't like this part too much, i'm worried that one day they might work together and attempt to double spend via 51% or other attack, remember that even at 40% some attacks are practicable without six confirmations, or if someone manage to hack the pools and do some malicious things

You should not fear this. I mean when they would do a >50% attack then they would need someone they can scam. And who would pay out a big enough amount of fiat in such a fast time that the attack would not be seen already?

On a second level, the miners would kill all their hardware and investment at once. By taking huge risk.

Doing that would simply be stupid on a business decision level.

DooMAD

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Leave no FUD unchallenged

I honestly don't understand the concern people have with whichever country happens to have the most hashing power.

Firstly, there's always likely going to be one country with more hashing power than the others, so if one concerns you, why don't the others? Would you somehow feel more comfortable if a western nation had the majority of hashing power? And if so, is that not a little bit prejudiced?

Secondly, China isn't some connected hive-mind or borg collective. They don't all act in unison towards a set goal. They're no more likely to attempt a 51% attack than anyone else.

It's just lines on a map. Who really gives a shit?

notlist3d

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Quote from: Amph on July 23, 2015, 07:49:51 AM

"China-based miners are now the majority"

i don't like this part too much, i'm worried that one day they might work together and attempt to double spend via 51% or other attack, remember that even at 40% some attacks are practicable without six confirmations, or if someone manage to hack the pools and do some malicious things

I worried about this once with Ghash. But I don't worry anymore we have seen as far as a single pool the community will get together to stop one pool from having 51 percent.

And think about a 51 percent attack they gain one big attack. But they kill all future business and tank BTC price. So it's not really good for business even if they can do a 51 percent attack.

So no one is going to do it unless it's a rogue hacker type.

maku

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I like that more bitcoin facts are positive and there are no clearly bad news and big problems in the bitcoin world.
The most concerning fact is of course that China-based miners are now the majority and I don't like that focused power over bitcoin network they could have.
The other 'problem' that bitcoin is still not popular with consumers is rather insignificant as userbase is growing and will grow bigger over time.

Amph

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"China-based miners are now the majority"

i don't like this part too much, i'm worried that one day they might work together and attempt to double spend via 51% or other attack, remember that even at 40% some attacks are practicable without six confirmations, or if someone manage to hack the pools and do some malicious things

ChrisPop

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Not your Keys, Not your Bitcoins

"Last week, CoinDesk released the latest in our series of quarterly State of Bitcoin reports.

Just like all our reports to date, the State of Bitcoin Q2 2015 was an all-encompassing look at the bitcoin ecosystem, clocking in at just shy of 100 slides of data.

It was the first positive quarter for bitcoin since this time last year, characterised by increased attention amidst the Greek crisis and interest from banks and governments in blockchain technology.

However, these weren't the only takeaways from Q2. Here, we've put together a few hidden gems from the report you might have missed."

http://www.coindesk.com/6-things-you-missed-from-the-state-of-bitcoin/

Topic: 6 Things You Missed from the State of Bitcoin (Read 843 times)