Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin miners basically utilize powerful computers in order to verify the transactions. Usually, there are mining pools which have groups of miners to combine their mining power and be more efficient. However, if someone gets more than 50 percent of network’s mining power, they can use it to manipulate the system as per their personal needs.

Continue Reading: https://coingape.com/what-is-51-attack-in-bitcoin-blockchain/

as far as i know yes.. thats make it more centralized right? but some other project counter this with different methods..

D240

Ghash.io was the biggest pool in 2014. It crossed the 50% threshold in July and that created quite a controversy.

As a result of the controversy, ghash.io pledged to remain below 40%, but by then it was too late. Many members of the pool left and joined smaller pools. The loss of members continued until October 2016, when the pool was closed.

The lesson for mining pools is this: if you get close to 51%, your members will leave.

More info on ghash.io: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghash.io

It is true that if we want to mine we must use a computer that is really strong so we can get maximum results.

The Ghash situation shows exactly the strength and vision of the Bitcoin community. Instead of using the majority hash to mess with the system the pool agreed to limit and individual members left, showing collective and individual responsibility and determination for making the potential of bitcoin a reality.

You want one that is very efficient.  Otherwise the cost of the processing can outweigh the amount of BTC you can mine.  Thats why people setup dedicated mining rigs powered by alternative energy instead of mining on their macbook.

whenever people talk about 51% attacks by mining pools they forget two things. first that these are mining "pools" not mining "farms" they don't own all the hashrate, maybe some of it comes from them but the rest is from individual miners that are connecting to them to pool the work.
and second is the fact that an attack like that is not something that can go unnoticed, and this attack can ruin bitcoin. a miner who has invested his money in mining equipment does not want to see his investment burn to the ground. they won't allow this to happen!
not to mention that you can't easily perform a 51% attack with 51% hashrate, you need a lot more than that. it starts at that level and becomes easy with higher hashrate.

Can they? Yes, but success isn't guaranteed. Having 51% of the hashrate doesn't automatically mean they can succeed with an attack.

Will they? I seriously doubt it. A successful attack will ruin Bitcoin, and an unsuccessful one will ruin them. Neither scenario would put them in any good situation, unless these huge miners purposefully wanted to bring Bitcoin down.


I'd say it's less about strength and vision, and more about how it will be advantageous for no one for Bitcoin to plummet. The system does work incredibly well though if viewed in that light.

If they have 51% of the hashrate for a short (sustained) time, it is likely that they can succeed with an attack.
In fact, they can even succeed with an attack, if they have less than 51% of the attack (with a slightly lower probability).
You can use this calculator to tell you the probability.
https://people.xiph.org/~greg/attack_success.html

However, for the most popular currencies such as Bitcoin and Litecoin, it can take centuries to generate a valid 'block' on your own and make money. Mining pools exist as a way for multiple devices to work together across the internet, pooling their resources in performing complex calculations to generate.

Yes. These mining pools are very helpful in every transactions we made in blockchain. These miners verify transactions using complex algorithms  just to check whether a transaction is legitimate or fake. These mining pools prevent hackers to attack vulnerabilities in blockchain. They perform a big role in the whole crpyptocurrency.