Only if over 50% of the network agrees on it. The implications of that however would be staggering.

You seem to have missed my point on the "Miners Vote" issue. No, they do not decide the value of a Bitcoin. They can decide what they sell it at, but ultimately it's the buyer that decides what they are willing to pay.

The Miners can decide on what rules they mine by. And yes, if one rogue node changes the rules it gets rejected. But if enough nodes "vote" on changing the rules, that is, they mine with a different set of rules, then the majority rules.

This is how miners "vote".


This is a very shortsighted statement.

I don't get what all the denial is about here. Wishing and arguing that it's impossible doesn't help, it's a possibility, and a threat to the whole network.

Unless I'm wrong, in which case the whole 51% attack fiasco is a non-issue.

Never said there would be. But the rules of bitcoin can be changed, whether you like it or not.

Completely possible, but being decentralized, Bitcoin is far more rooted than any Fiat currency. So regardless of how it collapses, it will always exist in some form.

That's the idea, anyway.

Satoshi Nakamoto is a glitch, a byproduct of the internet. A decentralized consciousness hell bent on taking over the world.

Bitcoin is just the first in a slew of digital measures that it will launch.

I did not shoot the deputy

Again, that depends on the votes of the miners and whether or not a slight decrease in value is worth the security a larger network would provide.


Not sure if you're trolling, or just ignorant.


By the time the transaction volume increases by 1000x, the number of miners will also have increased by a significant amount, reducing everyone's share of the fee.

I'm 99% certain the rules will be changed to keep miners and therefore the securers of the network online. Possibly in the form of an increased Total Coin ceiling.

I just don't see 50% of the network sticking around for the "fees".

But that's at least a decade away from becoming a real problem, there'll be other currencies by then.

Perhaps a new currency will be started that secures the BTC network while issuing it's own currency.

Man, this is gonna be interesting, can't wait. 

Once could argue that would be better for bitcoin in the long run.

EDIT: and by that, I mean the current piggybacking of Bitcoin on fiat currency is causing more harm than good, in the form of wild swings in speculation etc...

LOL, there's your problem right there. If you spent 30 min reading the wiki page, you'd know the block reward is set to halve every time half the remaining coins are mined. 21,000,000 / 2 = 10,500,000, right now we're at 8,949,150.

I have nightmares where the government simply tells the internet providers to block all Bitcoin (or any crypto-currency) related traffic and that'll pretty much kill the currency for anyone within the country.

An internet connection is a vital requirement for bitcoin, that's where it exists.

I know they could've done that with torrents, but file sharing wasn't directly threatening their control over the economy.

Are there measures against that? Or would that be a death blow.

That is a very strange warranty period for something that is considered a long term (> 1year) investment.

Wonder how many MH/s it gets 

Does the MiniRig require a computer to run it, or can it work as a standalone with nothing but power and an internet connection?

I got into mining just under a year ago and have stuck with GUIminer since then in a "ain't broken don't fix" bind. Downtime is money as it goes.

Anything better worth the time to switch to? I'm running win7 and not looking to switch OS, just the software miner.

Excuse my n00biness, but how can you install XP on it if it has no DVD drive?

I want to meet in person wherever it is you live, and see proof of residence and a copy of two forms of government ID.

Would you be willing to do that?

This fractional lending is the tool used by banks to cause the recent crash. Because eventually, you've lent $1000 out, and sold that debt, but only have $100, and realize the $1000 can't be collected, making the debt worthless.

"Natural selection" and "Survival of the fittest" would deem that your organization fall, and in a BTC economy, you'd need real BTC to bail you out. In the current setting however, the reserve just prints more money, diluting the existing value of the $ as a whole, and the bank continues to run its scam.

So I guess a more focused question would be, would the world as a whole be better served by a currency like BTC, where the network doesn't care if your economy collapses due to a shortage of reserves?

Gotta love bitcoin 

I know there are a thousand assumptions here, but let's imagine for a second that Bitcoin takes off and new BTC banks pop up, and old banks start to deal in bitcoins.

What would happen then? Would people trust them to hold bitcoins? Could they lend bitcoins out?