Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Concern? over 50% of miners controlled by two pools
by
Gabi
on 24/12/2013, 19:39:11 UTC
Do you even know what a 51% attack is?  Do you know what can be done using it?  Do you know what would happen if a pool tried to do it?

Let's do a mind experiment.  Assume BTC guild, right now, has 60% of all the hashing power.  Now explain to me exactly what they would do in order to pull off a "51% attack", exactly what they would accomplish by doing it and most importantly exactly why they would do it.

A 51% Attack doesn't have to be intentional, does it? If any pool had 60% of the hashing power, an attack would be forthcoming. The pool doesn't have to try to do it, it will, which is why the pools cap themselves. Blocks other miners solve would be orphaned left and right... The longest chain always win the conflict, right? That isn't to say it was done intentionally or with malice. But whoever has the upper hand would benefit from the block rewards and transactions fees of those resolved 'conflicts.'  On the other hand, if a pool wanted to orchestrate an attack... well, I guess that's another topic.
No.

Quote
This isn't intentional - As the authority on the network (so to speak), clients will believe the pool's hashed transaction block over any other. That means the pool will win all transaction conflicts, and get the rewards.
Epic confusion.

A 51% attack is then the attacker blockchain voluntarily ignore every other blocks. An honest 51% holder would accept the blocks found by other people.