Re:Why the practical applications of Bitcoin will be limited
by sp332 on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @03:19PM
(#9147035)
The fewer miners there are, the easier it is to carry out a 51% attack. And the top miners have much more processing power than the average miner. Just a few of the top ones collaborating could carry it off.
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Re:Why the practical applications of Bitcoin will be limited
by DennisP on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @03:27PM
(#9147077)
That's definitely a problem, and it's the reason other projects are working on ASIC-resistant proof-of-work. I just don't see how the method I described would make things any worse.
Re:Why the practical applications of Bitcoin will be limited
by sp332 on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @03:43PM
(#9147200)
I'm just pointing out that limiting active miners to people with fast internet connections means there will be fewer of them.
Re:Why the practical applications of Bitcoin will be limited
by erok on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @04:36PM
(#9147520)
This used to be an issue with pools but I don't believe this to be a risk so much anymore.
Re:Why the practical applications of Bitcoin will be limited
by sp332 on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @05:01PM
(#9147675)
Why not? Pools are still huge, and at least the "ethical" members of a pool could move their processing power to a different pool. If individuals are bigger than pools now, that means even fewer people have to collude to get 51%.