[2014-06-17] One group controls 51 percent of Bitcoin mining, threatening securi

[erono]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2364000/bitcoin-price-dips-as-backers-fear-mining-monopoly.html

Bitcoin was hovering around $600 on Monday, according to CoinDesk.com, which tracks prices on exchanges, down from $653 on Wednesday.
The decline follows reports that a group is now in a position to conduct a so-called “51 percent attack” on the cryptocurrency, a situation in which it could potentially interfere with transactions or even spend bitcoins twice.

[acs267]

Misleading title. Should say "One group of people may control 51 percent of Bitcoin mining; Threatening security and decentralization." Saying that GHash already controls 51% would make you be seen as un-educated.

[Lethn]

Misleading title. Should say "One group of people may control 51 percent of Bitcoin mining; Threatening security and decentralization." Saying that GHash already controls 51% would make you be seen as un-educated.

This is about as stupid as the situation where everybody was panicking about ASICs and I'm seeing the same level of panic too, the difficulty is designed to take care of this problem and makes it distinctly unprofitable to throw lots of hashpower at Bitcoin. ASIC's were released and it wasn't a disaster, somebody has control over the a huge amount of the network? It will start becoming unprofitable just as ASIC's and people who try this will be forced to shut down so they can stay in profit and lower the difficulty.

[Grinder]

This is about as stupid as the situation where everybody was panicking about ASICs and I'm seeing the same level of panic too, the difficulty is designed to take care of this problem and makes it distinctly unprofitable to throw lots of hashpower at Bitcoin. ASIC's were released and it wasn't a disaster, somebody has control over the a huge amount of the network? It will start becoming unprofitable just as ASIC's and people who try this will be forced to shut down so they can stay in profit and lower the difficulty.

You could easily argue that it already has been a disaster, it just hasn't reached it's full potential yet. Cex.io controls as much of the mining power as they do mainly because ASICs are available and the barrier of entry to mining has become much higher. Judging from their press release it will only get worse.

[epere]

51% attacks , seriously I've been seeing a respond on various people and correcting false assumptions all over the place.