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Single Bitcoin Mining Pool Achieves Majority Power

posted by martyb on Monday June 16 2014, @11:55AM   
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?

• 34 ph/s 34 ph/s (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday June 16 2014, @12:40PM

  by VLM (445) on Monday June 16 2014, @12:40PM (#55869)

  34 ph/s is kinda impressive to a guy who successfully software mined a long time ago. Back when the difficulty factor was a two digit number, at least for awhile.

  I would imagine 34 ph/s represents a substantial amount of electrical power being turned into heat.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Interesting=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:34 ph/s (Score: 1, Troll) by morgauxo on Monday June 16 2014, @01:12PM

  by morgauxo (2082) on Monday June 16 2014, @01:12PM (#55879)

  Yes, that is true. All that bitcoin heat is used to keep homeless shelters warm. Isn't that great?!?! Oh.. you want to turn it off? You Monster!

  Parent