No, it's in the hand of the pool operator not in the hand of the pool's miners.

The scenario of a pool having 51% of the network power has always been known, and it actually already happened with other pools and the result is just people leaving as soon as it's getting closer to 45%.

As of writing, Ghash.io (which is operated by cex.io) is already down from 45% to 38%.

Watch how fast the miners leave the operator if they disagree with his actions.

It's the hands of the miners.

> Watch how fast the miners leave the operator if they disagree with his actions.

1. They'd have to be aware of the actions of an anonymous pool owner

2. The amount of damage the pool owner can do before people even have the time to start leaving is staggering

> It's the hands of the miners.

You're in denial.

The fact remains that the "power" of the pool operator depends on the miners, who can change pools in a matter of minutes.

The instant it's known they're abusing their power, it starts to vanish. It's not a long, drawn-out process.

It literally starts within minutes.

And control of the block chain can be taken over in minutes too. As far as I am aware the network updates itself every 10 minutes. So unless the operator never has a period of more than 10 minutes of 51% control or more the network is vulnerable.

This started out as discussion of power, in particular regarding the robber barons who "enslaved" large numbers of people.

That's not possible with the mining pools. The pool operators simply do not have that kind of power, and they will never have it.

Their power derives from people who can leave them by literally clicking a button. Not much room for power to be abused in that situation.

Yes, there could be a window of maybe 20-30 minutes when a pool operator could do something wrong. But that window would come to a swift end.

And that's not what this thread is about anyway.