Re: How much would it cost right now to attain 50% of the network?
why would deepbit not steal bitcoins if he has 50%?
since it would be impossible to catch him doing it... i think people would have to assume that he is
since it would be impossible to catch him doing it... i think people would have to assume that he is
No, it's not impossible to catch. In order to "steal" coins, he would spend them on some item or service and wait to receive it. Once he did, he would direct deepbit to build not from the current block, but the one prior to the transaction. It would have to generate all of the blocks that have passed since and surpass the length of the current chain, at which point the transaction would be erased, giving him back his coins.
It would be fairly obvious this was occurring, and all of his miners would jump ship, because it is not in their interest to take part.
Exactly what I was trying to get at... you just beat me to it
Now, if he controlled all this power himself, people would be able to see that something was going on, but would be powerless to necessarily stop it since he would be able to validate his own fraudulent transactions.