Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Development & Technical Discussion => Topic started by: jimbobway on January 06, 2011, 09:26:17 PM



Title: Cooperative Mining Monopoly Question
Post by: jimbobway on January 06, 2011, 09:26:17 PM
Right now there is one major cooperative miner.  He has about 9000 Gh/s.  Does this means he controls a lot of the network?  What if he hacks the bitcoin client?  Couldn't this be a potential problem?  Or, do everyone who contribute to the cooperative server help the integrity of the bitcoin?


Title: Re: Cooperative Mining Monopoly Question
Post by: theymos on January 06, 2011, 10:06:52 PM
The pool maintainer makes all network decisions. If a pool has more than 50% of the network, the maintainer can double-spend.

I see this as a good thing because it allows the network to adapt quickly. If the network is controlled by a few dozen people, software upgrades will happen within hours/days. Generators can change their code and have real effect before a new version is even released.

The members of a pool will leave if they know that the maintainer is acting inappropriately, though this is more difficult to detect on slush's pool -- puddinpop's pool is better in this regard because the miners can see the block they are working on.

Quote
He has about 9000 Gh/s.

The entire network has 129 Gh/s. The pool has ~8 Gh/s.


Title: Re: Cooperative Mining Monopoly Question
Post by: jimbobway on January 07, 2011, 06:24:17 AM
Ok, I suppose what I thought was a negative could be a positive.