Will Bitcoin client do direct peer-peer coin exchange

[Mitchell]

Well the Bitcoin code can be changed, but it's kinda hard to do because 51% of the network has to agree with these changes. But, I see your point and I totally agree with you. You don't like it? Who the hell cares, bye.

[BurtW]

Well the Bitcoin code can be changed, but it's kinda hard to do because 51% of the network has to agree with these changes. But, I see your point and I totally agree with you. You don't like it? Who the hell cares, bye.

No.

Even if 51% of the network agrees with a major change then it does not affect Bitcoin.  What happens is that the 49% that does not agree with the change is still Bitcoin and the 51% that wants the change becomes a new coin by design.

Even if you get 75% to agree (with a major change that causes a hard fork) you still have 25% of the "die hard" miners and clients supporting Bitcoin and the 75% have just created a new alt coin.

[Mitchell]

Well the Bitcoin code can be changed, but it's kinda hard to do because 51% of the network has to agree with these changes. But, I see your point and I totally agree with you. You don't like it? Who the hell cares, bye.

No.

Even if 51% of the network agrees with a major change then it does not affect Bitcoin.  What happens is that the 49% that does not agree with the change is still Bitcoin and the 51% that wants the change becomes a new coin by design.

Even if you get 75% to agree (with a major change that causes a hard fork) you still have 25% of the "die hard" miners and clients supporting Bitcoin and the 75% have just created a new alt coin.

Hmmm. I see your point. I never looked at it that way. But wouldn't the coins from the other 49%/25% be worthless, because the majority chooses for the new alt coin?

[BurtW]

Hmmm. I see your point. I never looked at it that way. But wouldn't the coins from the other 49%/25% be worthless, because the majority chooses for the new alt coin?

No, the market would decide the price of the Bitcoins and the Bitcoin alt.

Let's say the change was to invalidate or recycle the coins if they do not move in X years (a very popular change idea) then those two chains would diverge as one chain, the original, did not invalidate the coins and the other one did.

[maaku]

If you want to make a hard-fork change to bitcoin, then you need every single node to upgrade. You need 100%.

It happened a couple of times in the early history of bitcoin. At this stage, it's basically impossible except in emergency response to consensus errors.

[Mitchell]

Hmmm. I see your point. I never looked at it that way. But wouldn't the coins from the other 49%/25% be worthless, because the majority chooses for the new alt coin?

No, the market would decide the price of the Bitcoins and the Bitcoin alt.

Let's say the change was to invalidate or recycle the coins if they do not move in X years (a very popular change idea) then those two chains would diverge as one chain, the original, did not invalidate the coins and the other one did.

Ah, I see. Of course. Interesting stuff. I really should read the white paper and all the technical stuff. I have been saying that for months and still haven't done it. Oh well.

[BurtW]

Ah, I see. Of course. Interesting stuff. I really should read the white paper and all the technical stuff. I have been saying that for months and still haven't done it. Oh well.

Read this entire thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=352734.0

I think it answers a lot of questions in this area and it is not too long.

[Mitchell]

Ah, I see. Of course. Interesting stuff. I really should read the white paper and all the technical stuff. I have been saying that for months and still haven't done it. Oh well.

Read this entire thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=352734.0

I think it answers a lot of questions in this area and it is not too long.

Will do, thanks dude

[e4xit]

Well the Bitcoin code can be changed, but it's kinda hard to do because 51% of the network has to agree with these changes. But, I see your point and I totally agree with you. You don't like it? Who the hell cares, bye.

No.

Even if 51% of the network agrees with a major change then it does not affect Bitcoin.  What happens is that the 49% that does not agree with the change is still Bitcoin and the 51% that wants the change becomes a new coin by design.

Even if you get 75% to agree (with a major change that causes a hard fork) you still have 25% of the "die hard" miners and clients supporting Bitcoin and the 75% have just created a new alt coin.

I would argue (semantically) based on nothing but my opinion, that  a chain with greater then 51% of the network agreeing to would continue on as **the** bitcoin (chain), and the 49% left behind without the changes woudl have to be then considered to be the alt-coin.

Surely the larger % (if greater than 50%) must be considered the "main chain". If i were to boot up a pre-hard-fork bitcoin instance now under you logic that might be the only node in the world running *pure* bitcoin, with the 99.99% of us on the current chain simply using an "alt-coin".

Your point largely still stands though...

[BurtW]

I would argue (semantically) based on nothing but my opinion, that  a chain with greater then 51% of the network agreeing to would continue on as **the** bitcoin (chain), and the 49% left behind without the changes woudl have to be then considered to be the alt-coin.

Surely the larger % (if greater than 50%) must be considered the "main chain". If i were to boot up a pre-hard-fork bitcoin instance now under you logic that might be the only node in the world running *pure* bitcoin, with the 99.99% of us on the current chain simply using an "alt-coin".

Your point largely still stands though...

Yes, a split of any magnitude would cause this to be argued ad nauseum.  "We are the real Bitcoin", "No, we are the real Bitcoin".

But, it is never going to happen because all these people that come up with bright ideas of how to change Bitcoin never actually do it.  They just sit and post about it over and over.  Those that actually do something go create an alt coin with a totally new chain.  Creating an alt as a blockchain branch has a real issue:  all of us that own pre branch coins now own coins on both branches and given any value to the alt we can all dump our alt coins and crash their alt coin market and use the proceeds to buy more real Bitcoins.