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They don't own the computer power. It comes from the miners who join the pool.

The 51% attack problem is something that needs to be solved for bitcoin. But it isn't as bad as you think it is.

I used to think that someone who took over the network could spend my bitcoins even without my private keys. But that is not true. The actual attacks possible with 51% are significantly more minor than stealing bitcoins.



With 51% a miner could orphan everyone elses mined blocks could they not? Essentially giving them 100% of the rewards.

Thats pretty huge.


All the miners would leave that pool if they did that. I would.


Really? If the pool only has 51% of the mining power but gets 100% of the block rewards, pool members would get coins at double the normal rate. I don't see a lot of people leaving in that event.


And what would happen to the value of bitcoin?




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