Quote from: LovelyDay on January 02, 2016, 10:32:07 PM

Quote from: JackH on January 02, 2016, 10:18:19 PM

And longest chain is a rule set by nodes, correct? Meaning, that consensus is formed by the highest voting number of nodes, in this scenario, my 2000 nodes.

If we go by the standard 6 confirmations, 6 depths, then we can safely assume it will be the longest chain. So after my 2000 nodes vote for a 200MB block, I wait 1h for the longest chain to become 200MB. Or for the real paranoid, we wait 2 hours, and I am certain that the 200MB rule is enforced and that there is probably not another chain.

I then spam it with 200MB data, and thus we get 200MB blocks until someone can form a better consensus (launch more nodes with a different blocksize consensus).

All this, I can do in less than one day, and cripple the network for less than $5000.

The majority of nodes decide the consensus, and the miners produce the actual blocks.

If the mining majority does not produce 200MB blocks, then eventually they will outproduce your chain, even if your 2000 nodes (not the majority of nodes currently, btw.) accepted it.

The only situation in which your scenario holds is if you control the mining majority and the majority of nodes.
Then you can maintain a longest chain with 200MB blocks (provided you generate the transactions to fill it).

If you can do that for $5000 then you can do it today already, nothing would be stopping you.

I don't consider it fruitful to continue this line of thought since it does not add any new attack that could not have been done in the past.

Ok so consensus is formed by miners and not the nodes. The miners set the absolute parameter for the size of the block, as they are the ones creating the block.

This leads us back to what Adam said then.

Nodes will then have to follow the rules ascribed by miners, and their vote is pointless as consensus is formed by those who mine. Which means, Adam will still get kicked off the network, when the winning miners decide on 2MB blocks, and Adam only accepts 1.1MB.