Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curious conversations?

Re:Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curio... by Rd6n6 on Sunday November 21, 2021 @11:40AM (#29297559)

> cryptographically codifying law and contracts can be beneficial in a lot of ways (like transparency/enforcement in governance)

Would 51% attacks spoil the party with that? The incentives would be enormous to do such a thing, it might even become a polarized political imperative to try to do these attacks.

It might also be like replacing the one citizen, one vote system with a one gpu (or future hardware item), one vote system. Would that remove political power from citizens?

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Re:Ask HN: Why does cryptocurrency subjects on HN lack curio... by prohobo on Sunday November 21, 2021 @11:45AM (#29297616)

We don't really know. A lot of work has gone into trying to minimize incentive for 51% attacks though, and it continues. "Fork off" is a classic argument, that the attacker may take over the chain but then cause a fork where they're left with a worthless system anyway - meaning the 51% attack would only be profitable for a short duration before a fork devalues their winnings and everyone continues on the new system.

Vitalik Buterin is involved in a lot of the theory in handicapping plutocrats, and enabling fair representation/voting in the blockchain space. Check out his blog.

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