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A comment on The blockchain paradox: Why DLTs may do little to transform the economy. Parent comment

Re:The blockchain paradox: Why DLTs may do little to transfo... by linkregister on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:22PM (#14555807)
> The only way a bad actor can manipulate the ledger is if they own enough nodes to gain a majority, which is virtually impossible.

At times the leading BTC mining pool has controlled greater than 50% of the nodes. Would this not be enough to alter the ledger?

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Re:The blockchain paradox: Why DLTs may do little to transfo... by Taek on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @11:43PM (#14557795)
Notably, 'altering the ledger' here has a very restricted meaning. You can spend money, then reverse the spend back into your wallet. Or you can commit to a piece of information, then delete it.

But you can't alter the core protocol or fundamental network rules. If you do, the other nodes will ignore you.

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Re:The blockchain paradox: Why DLTs may do little to transfo... by kahnpro on Thursday June 15, 2017 @12:15PM (#14561718)
But this is the fundamental question it's all about... the expectation that the other nodes will ignore you.

Somehow "the other nodes" have reached consensus about what protocols or rules to follow, and this is where we end up back at human governance.

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Re:The blockchain paradox: Why DLTs may do little to transfo... by danblick on Wednesday June 14, 2017 @04:51PM (#14556023)
Yes, you could abuse that power to allow double-spending. For what it's worth, I'd say I'm a bit concerned about this, but it seems many aren't.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14485430

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