Changing the payout address in a newly mined block requires redoing the proof-of-work.
Ah. The hashing info is calculated taking into account the payout address?
Found this
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm So the block header is comprised on the following components
Component Reason UpdatedVersion Block version number You upgrade the software and it specifies a new version
hashPrevBlock 256-bit hash of the previous block header A new block comes in
hashMerkleRoot 256-bit hash based on all of the transactions in the block A transaction is accepted
Time Current timestamp as seconds since 1970-01-01T00:00 UTC Every few seconds
Bits Current target in compact format The difficulty is adjusted
Nonce 32-bit number (starts at 0) A hash is tried (increments)
So a transaction is verified if it makes sense based on the nodes blockchain, it is then added to the blockchain and the merkle root is recalculated(?).
When someone is mining, do they add the transaction that pays them out to the blockchain they have, changing the merkleroot, and then hash it and broadcast it? This way someone can not change where the payout goes to without rehashing/doing a crapton of work.
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Seeing as that fails, what if someone was still able to gain control to all of the nodes one person is connected to?
I guess the most they could be is an annoyance.
They could just not broadcast new blocks to the node, and send it random transactions (generate tons of transactions to and from themselves). If this is done to a node that holds a considerable portion of the networks computational power though, it would weaken the network making it easier to perform a legitimate 51% attack.