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Author Topic: Suggestion for FAQ  (Read 325 times)
rsteinke (OP)
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March 28, 2013, 04:51:14 PM
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I have a couple questions that I think should be in the FAQ on the Wiki.  I don't have editing permission on the Wiki so I thought I would post them here.

Q: Where is the blockchain stored?

A: Many copies of the blockchain are stored on many different computers all over the internet.  Anyone running a full Bitcoin node has a copy of the blockchain.

Q: Wait, I thought the blockchain was a single log of all transactions.  If there are many copies, how do we know which one is the "real" one?  What if someone creates a fraudulent blockchain and says, "No, my blockchain is the real one."

A: The longest blockchain is always considered to be the "real" one.  As long as a majority of the CPU power mining blocks is honest, the probability that a dishonest attacker could create a longer blockchain is vanishingly small.

Q: What if everyone who had a copy of the blockchain decided to stop using bitcoin and deleted it from their hard drive?

A: Anyone who owns bitcoins can store a copy of the blockchain if they are worried about this possibility.

I also think text that says some form of "Bitcoins can be used without needing to trust any third party." needs to be modified.  You could say "without needing to trust any single third party", but technically you are trusting that a whole distributed group of third parties has a certain property, namely that a majority of them are honest.

Now, Bitcoin is a pretty neat system.  You have created a system where if a majority of users are honest then it's not profitable to be dishonest so you would expect the majority of uses to be honest.  It's really a great idea, but I don't think it's quite accurate to say that you are trusting no one.

Places where I've found such text:

Bitcoin Wiki main page under the heading WHY: "Bitcoins are sent easily through the Internet, without needing to trust any third party. "

Bitcoin Wiki FAQ under the heading SECURITY: "Bitcoin doesn't ask that its users trust any institution." (But it does ask that they trust an emergent property of a distributed collection of individuals and institutions.)

Bitcoin Forum > Bitcoin Discussion > Topic: New to Bitcoin? Start here! under the heading What problem Bitcoin solves: "how to do all of the above without trusting anyone"
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