1) You have indicated in the past they could be refilled when asked what happens when they run out of money. What would happen if the balance of all trusted nodes fell below 1M SC and no "real millionaire" existed? The entire network would halt forever?
Yes the entire network would halt until the code was fixed.
Just like how in Bitcoin the same would happen if difficulty was increased to 100 million by the government.
I said the trust accounts could in the future be refilled if code was added to support it. Currently those trust accounts cannot be moved in ANY way, including collecting donations to themselves. So it would be impossible _currently_ to do such a thing with them. They are really locked down.
2) You can force any change to the network. If ever there was a need for you to continue to retain absolute control you could remove the restriction, you could change the even block protocol so it refills the trusted node automatically. You could increase the limit for what makes a trusted node (to lock out competitors). You could remove the restrctions on spending funds from trusted node. You could increase the kings ransom from 10% to 30% or any amount to ensure you will always be in complete control of the network.
If a single person controls the funds & the keys there is no checks and balances. Just obfuscation.
This is incorrect because I don't run all the trust nodes. All decisions need to be agreed upon by those holders or they could decide not to support the changes and chaos would ensue. These 10 trust accounts are a short term measure to get us into the real millionaire realm, it's not a permanent thing by any mean which is why they are designed to die.
And you would still override them by having >1M coins. Also you could at any time change that if you wanted to just like you can change any aspect of the network on a whim.
No, they need a majority of trust money if they want to force decisions on the network. Think of SolidCoin as two forces fighting, both mining and money, you need both to attack the network which is why it's so secure. Without mining power the trust nodes really have nothing and vice versa.
Just as trust nodes can not accept certain blocks non trust nodes don't have to accept trust node blocks if they don't meet criteria of their choosing. You are really simplifying things if you don't realize you need both forces working together, those with the money and those with the mining power.