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Single Bitcoin Mining Pool Achieves Majority Power

posted by martyb on Monday June 16 2014, @11:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the mine!-mine!-mine! dept.

lubricus writes:

Fears and warnings about the consequences of a single entity obtaining majority network power have been known for some time, but have generally been dismissed as not conveying enough control to be worthwhile.

For the first time, and for several extended periods, the GHash mining pool delivered 51% of the bitcoin network hashing power, despite promises that they would never cross the 50% threshold.

Although GHash did not take advantage of its monopoly power during these times, it does seem that we have crossed a threshold. How do you trust the blockchain to an anonymous monopoly?

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by d on Monday June 16 2014, @12:20PM

    by d (523) on Monday June 16 2014, @12:20PM (#55862)

    From what I know, they can't authorize fake transactions, but pick which they accept and which not. IMHO people should see that as a threat and choose to pick another pool.

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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Horse With Stripes on Monday June 16 2014, @12:47PM

    by Horse With Stripes (577) on Monday June 16 2014, @12:47PM (#55871)

    Can't they validate a fake transaction then? What if they hold up a pending transaction, generate a fake transaction transferring the bitcoins to a wallet they control (rather than the intended recipient), then accept and validate their version of the transaction? Isn't that technically possible with the 51%? Their block chain would trump the others.

  • (Score: 2) by geb on Monday June 16 2014, @01:34PM

    by geb (529) on Monday June 16 2014, @01:34PM (#55886)

    There's not a great deal of difference between generating a fake transaction, and making a real transaction but then invalidating it immediately afterwards.

    "What? You think we paid you? Haha. Deal with the new reality. We just changed history to say we didn't pay."