Topic: GHASH.IO + DISCUS FISH >>>51% Possible to death bitcoin? (Read 2224 times)

I don't think the reporters at the guardian truly understand bitcoin at this level to be able to accurately report it in a way that the average person could understand

UPPPP

Very few facts in the Guardian article

What people are afraid of is that an attacker would have something other then a financial motivation to launch an attack. 

I agree that those are completely different words, with a completely different meaning from what I said.

OP, welcome to last month. You missed the drama about this, is that why you bring it up again?

Yet Theymos decided to remove restrictions.  

In other words, you would collapse the market and earn $00. 

By denying every other miner any profits you can almost double the bitcoin income. This will make other miners give up, and then you can gradually turn off some of the miners and save cost. The risk for this is already very high but it doesn't seem to influenced the price. It's hard to tell if this is because the majority is in denial about it or just doesn't care. If it's the latter it means it would be very profitable.

welcome noob 

SHHHHHHHHHH

Hey man...gotta keep the FUDsicles fresh dude!  :p

Well hackers could in theory hack two (or more pools), essentially control 51% of the network, spend massive amounts of coins on some good/service and then reverse the payment after the goods/services are received. The problem with this is that if the amounts were great enough then the price of bitcoin would likely fall more then 50%, making the attack unprofitable.

Gotta love all these constant new accounts with 11 posts, posting apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo FUD.

a 51% attack and hacking were never really my concern as these have been shown to be mainly self defeating and therefore less likely. However monopoly of blocks is a concern as this would drive the smaller pools and miners out of btc. as I have said in a previous post there are still 9 miliion btc to be mined -do you feel safe and in a decentralized system if they all belong to ghash.io

This just seems kind of silly. Since the 51% "threat" ended with the biggest pool we have to add pools together now and fret over it? I think some people just want something to complain about.

In theory if the two pools were hacked and the hackers executed an attack on the blockchain then the confidence in bitcoin could be eroded to the amount that bitcoin price would crash.

In reality this will not happen as when evidence of an actual attack against the network by specific pool(s) miners would pretty much instantly pull their hashpower from those pools to prevent the attacks from continuing. IMO the very large miners with significant amounts of money invested in miners would likely be monitoring a number of sources (forums, MSM, the blockchain) for potential evidence of an attack on the network by the pool they are mining on and would react accordingly 

You are currently trusting all of your dollars (assuming US) to just a few people meeting behind closed doors, who are currently using extraordinary measures to prop up a struggling financial system.  Their interests are not always aligned with your interests.

The pools do not own the hashing power.  At the slightest hint of impropriety, the hashing power will be yanked.

We have two pools, who do not own anywhere near 51% of the actual hashing power, and who would have to collude to together to destroy their own businesses, just doesn't seem like much of a risk.   Their interests are aligned with ours.

My life can be ended instantly by any of thousands of vehicles every day if they choose to cross two painted parallel yellow lines.  Because it isn't in their interest to cross those two lines, I trust my life every day that they'll stay on their side of the road. 

A few facts:
1. If a pool, or even an individual has 100% of the hashing power, you do not lose your bitcoin unless they choose to 'cross the yellow lines' and act suicidally against their self interest.
2. You do not lose your bitcoins even if they do act against their self interest.  Your bitcoins will be safe - except possibly a few that you receive during the timeframe of a malicious attack which will be very short lived.  There are just too many people watching the blockchain.
3. If attack of this sort happens, which is possible, but very, very unlikely, the miners will pull their hashing power from the pool, and the attack ends.  And, very likely the pool ends as well.

I'm all for distributing the hashing power, but the problem is being overstated.

Jesus man, the ghash panic was all ready over the top. Why are we looking for things to scare ourselves with? Just stop all ready.

It is a very real possibility and the community will be warned.