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It's Time For a Hard Bitcoin Fork

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Re: It's Time For a Hard Bitcoin Fork

#11

Post by adventured »

Zikes wrote: post #7
cdh wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this is true, regardless of how large Bitcoin grows to be. If a significant enough problem were discovered, wouldn't it be in everyone's best interest to protect the value of their wallets by accepting a forked blockchain?

Wouldn't GHash be able to pivot their existing mining power to take 51% of that new blockchain?

Yes, the extrapolation being missed by the article, is that the rich will control bitcoin, and nothing can ever stop that from happening. It goes to the very core of how bitcoin is designed that allows for it to be dominated by a large rich entity with enough processing power. Inherently the 'little guy' will be priced out of bitcoin, it was always going to be that way. Whether it's one or ten entities in question doesn't matter, bitcoin will be dominated by rich, powerful companies or persons, and that powerful position will only increase in fortification with time.

This principle pops the utopian fantasy of bitcoin that some cling to, but only a different approach to digital currencies will get you around the issue.

Money & power always consolidates down to the hands of a few that will possess dramatic influence compared to the rest of the market participants. See: JP Morgan, pre-Fed.

Re: It's Time For a Hard Bitcoin Fork

#15

Post by jayd3e »

adventured wrote: post #11
Zikes wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't GHash be able to pivot their existing mining power to take 51% of that new blockchain?

Yes, the extrapolation being missed by the article, is that the rich will control bitcoin, and nothing can ever stop that from happening. It goes to the very core of how bitcoin is designed that allows for it to be dominated by a large rich entity with enough processing power. Inherently the 'little guy' will be priced out of bitcoin, it was always going to be that way. Whether it's one or ten entities in question do…

That's a grim reality if true. I don't have any information that would refute this claim, so I can't disagree, and it actually makes a lot of sense.

Re: It's Time For a Hard Bitcoin Fork

#17

Post by a3_nm »

The article makes a pretty interesting point: Bitcoin's version of proof of work can be delegated, which makes mining pools possible. An alternative design could ensure that the task to solve is designed so that miners and pool could not trust each other, thus ensuring that pools do not exist.

It seems like this is a pretty big flaw in how Bitcoin is designed, as its security relies on miners remaining independent.

Re: It's Time For a Hard Bitcoin Fork

#18

Post by Afforess »

imaginenore wrote: post #12

You can't stop pool mining, even with a hard fork. Let's say you implement a restriction like "5 blocks in a row max for a given pool". GHash can split into GhashA and GhashB, and keep going.

From the article: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=309073.0

Re: It's Time For a Hard Bitcoin Fork

#19

Post by valarauca1 »

imaginenore wrote: post #12

You can't stop pool mining, even with a hard fork. Let's say you implement a restriction like "5 blocks in a row max for a given pool". GHash can split into GhashA and GhashB, and keep going.

That wouldn't work either. Even if to make it so every 3 blocks can be rewarded to an address (let's say), then you can simply write your own wallet that will use randomized addresses and simply forward their reward to the pool's wallet, which then distributes to the "real wallets".

The only way you can truly prevent pools from taking over is create a system of authentication that'll destroy anonymity.

Re: It's Time For a Hard Bitcoin Fork

#20

Post by emin-gun-sirer »

imaginenore wrote: post #12

You can't stop pool mining, even with a hard fork. Let's say you implement a restriction like "5 blocks in a row max for a given pool". GHash can split into GhashA and GhashB, and keep going.

That's not the kind of restriction that stops pool mining. The trick is to enable the pool members to steal the blocks they discover. Andrew Miller, a grad student at UMD, has an ingenious scheme for doing this. I am pretty sure I put the link in the article, under the first bullet in the "What to Do Now" section.
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