Quote from: JorgeStolfi on January 08, 2015, 09:02:19 PM

Quote from: smooth on January 08, 2015, 08:40:18 PM

Quote from: JorgeStolfi on January 08, 2015, 08:39:02 PM

Quote from: smooth on January 08, 2015, 08:05:50 PM

There is no cartel on the Red Button hard forked protocol. Anyone has equal access to the ability to mine. The fact that someone was a cartel previously does not grant any vested status in the future. Deepbit, for example, has no greater ability to show up today and be a mining cartel than you or I do.

Come on, you know that "the cartel" there means "the cartel of old-chain miners who want to force a change in the block schedule". It is not "a cartel of rebel-chain miners".

Yes, and what I'm saying is there is no cartel. A cartel implies there is some barrier to entry (for example by limited capacity of equipment). There is none here; everyone can mine.

And, again, I never said that they would be a cartel of rebel-chain miners. They would still be a cartel of miners of the old chain and the cartel chain. In fact they would have 100% of the active ASIC miners on their side, because the old chain miners would have no other viable option except join them.

There would be no point. Focus on users, not miners, for a monent. The have a choice:

Option 1. Hard forked chain that that pays more to miners

Option 2. Hard forked chain that does not pay more to miners

Users would choose #2. Miners would choose #1

Miners are by definition sellers of bitcoin, users are both buyers and sellers. Chain two would have both sellers and buyers. Chain 1 would have sellers but no buyers, and would therefore have no value. ASIC miners would face the choice to waste electricity mining a worthless coin or shut down.