Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: bitcoin is failing in replacing fiat in physical shops
by
augustocroppo
on 18/02/2014, 21:45:53 UTC
On a long enough timeline I think "fraudulent" miners are all but an inevitability.  I could see an entity with say 20% of the network willing to accept out of band double spends for a hefty fee (either flat rate say $10 per tx, or a % of the tx amount).
Do you not think large retailers might mitigate that risk by becoming miners themselves? If Bitcoin succeeds, I would expect many entities to be willing to devote some resources to mining, to make it harder for others to control a sizeable fraction of the network. With that goal, they don't need to make a profit, although any mining income will help defray the costs.

No one in his sane mind will devote "mining" for the sake of the Bitcoin network. It is a cost intensive operation and without a prospect of profit it is meaningless. Moreover, others are already in control of a big chunk of the network. So "mining" is not going to mitigate any risk because the final cost for the sellers are going to be higher than the expected benefit.