According to the whitepaper https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf:
So whoever controls most of the hash power controls the PoW consensus. According to the two searches in my first post, 50-60 miners control it.
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The majority decision is represented by the longest chain, which has the greatest proof-of-work effort invested in it. If a majority of CPU power is controlled by honest nodes, the honest chain will grow the fastest and outpace any competing chains. To modify a past block, an attacker would have to redo the proof-of-work of the block and all blocks after it and then catch up with and surpass the work of the honest nodes.
So whoever controls most of the hash power controls the PoW consensus. According to the two searches in my first post, 50-60 miners control it.
NO! Again this is not about control!
The longer chain will take over ONLY if it follows the rules, that's it!
Imagine if that wouldn't have been the case, it would mean every miner with 1TH/s could create his own blockchain, how would that work if you would have to follow whatever chain there is?
The 51% attacker doesn't change the rules, he just present a chain with VALID transactions, VALID blocks that follows the rules but it has more work behind it!
PoW works like this. The rule of the longest chain plus 51% hash power is written in the whitepaper.
From my point of view, this is a serious lack. Knowledge of the distribution of the hash rate is crucial. This invalidates one of the principles of blockchain: don't trust, verify.
Then I think we should introduce mandatory KYC data in the blockchain since right now:
- you trust mining nodes by verifying the blocks just as you verify a transactions coming from someone
- your NEEDS demand that you know the identity of the miner creating a valid block, then obviously you need the IDENTITY of a guy sending you coins, right?
The reality is that one has to trust the various actors, without being able to verify their actions. This invalidates one of the basic principles of blockchain.
How is it possible to know whether mining is controlled by finance or government?
What part of permissionless did you skip?
