So if ASICMINER were to mine solo, couldn't we see which blocks were generated by them, and therefor derive the hashrate so no one has to worry?
They could tag each block they generate but there would be no third party to audit. You'd have to trust them, but as least you'd be able to calculate confidence intervals for the probability of accurate reporting. Then again if they reported 99 of every 100 blocks solved it would take quite a long time before it looked like they were having impossibly bad luck.
)Only they know the exact current amount of hardware they are running.
Really, it doesn't matter where they mine as to how they can be audited.
It is simply a trust issue.
To match your example - if they reported their current hardware as 99% of real, then reporting 99 out of every 100 blocks would show up correctly.
I'm not implying they are doing this, in fact I'd doubt they are at all, however, there is no way to prove either way without full access to their hardware information - the pool choice makes no difference.
