Just a question

[Kingpin]

can a site owner screw us out of coins by shutting down the server when 50 btc are found. only to put it back up showing none were found?

[x0Jakeyboy0x]

Sounds quite feasible to me. Though it seems one could check somehow.

[wpride]

Yes I think so too.

[Kingpin]

how would one check? not saying that that is happening but i would like to check it out.

[x0Jakeyboy0x]

You should be able to use Bitcoin Block Explorer. If you know the pool's address or the block number you believe them to have solved, you should be able to do a search. For instance.

Block -> http://blockexplorer.com/b/132962
Address that solved it -> http://blockexplorer.com/a/5PtiASvpW4

You can search any address and see transactions to and from it.

[DrDeke]

The pool operator wouldn't even have to shut the server down; they could simply refuse to pay out any rewards.

[krash2501]

yeah that would suck and who would know???

[mikeintimesaves9]

The only check in the system is that the first time would probably be the time that jerk could pull that trick, because no one would log back into his pool anymore.

[Explodicle]

The site operator could steal several blocks worth of coins and probably get away with it. If the payoffs were very far from the mean for a long time, users would catch on and quit. Fortunately, most pools start small and establish trust first.