Theory on Ghash situation. price manipulation.

[feverpitch]

For sure it could be price manipulation, but I think that anytime a company actively does something against teh Bitcoin community, it could be argued that it is price manipulation, IMO.

[Willisius]

Price manipulation? I doubt it. BTC's value went down, IMO, because this is a serious problem that is being ignored. Now folks are losing faith, including Peter Todd (And I don't mean faith in BTC's valuation, I mean faith in the project itself).

It would be nice to "rest easy" knowing that this was price manipulation and not indicative of Bitcoin's health. But I don't believe that's the case.

[matt4054]

I can see a parallel between Too Big To Fail (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan etc) and the problem of pool centralization.

But let's be honest: GHash.io is as unlikely to kill BTC as Goldman Sachs is unlikely to kill money in the US. Doesn't mean they can't manipulate things if they wanted to, but it doesn't mean they can get totally away with it either.

[bitshul]

Isn't it quite likely that big miners have intentionally pulled their capacity away from GHash and are now appearing as 'unknown'?

I know that if I had mining resources in a pool that was close to 51%, I would think about moving them to protect the network (as long as I didn't lose too much by doing so).

[boliu]

wont be surprising that most of unknown are ghash

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

26% of the hash rate is unknown and 32% is Ghash.IO. Their hash rate dropped the exact percentage that unknown increased. I'm sure happy that one evil actor doesn't have control of most of the mining power. I feel much better now.

https://blockchain.info/pools

Bitfury pulled a large portion of their mining capacity. They said they were going to redirect to other pools, however they likely started to solo-mine.

[desired_username]

Now folks are losing faith, including Peter Todd

1.) Who the fuck is Peter Todd?

2.) New folks tend to buy CEX.IO shares or mine directly at Ghash because that's the biggest.

Human stupidity...

[fryarminer]

I absolutely agree with the OP. I was thinking of posting the same thing myself.

Ghash reaches 51%, price of bitcoin crashes.
Ghash suddenly drops to around 30%.
Price of bitcoin goes back up.
Now Ghash is getting closer to 51% again.
Watch btc price crash again.

Someone is manipulating the btc price to keep it in the 500s.

btc should be around $1000 by now with all the good acceptance it's had lately: Apple, Google, Yahoo, Expedia, etc., etc.... Even the Feds have given it recognition as something they can auction off.

[BitCoinDream]

Now folks are losing faith, including Peter Todd

1.) Who the fuck is Peter Todd?

2.) New folks tend to buy CEX.IO shares or mine directly at Ghash because that's the biggest.

Human stupidity greed...

Welcome to free market

[Guido]

I absolutely agree with the OP. I was thinking of posting the same thing myself.

Ghash reaches 51%, price of bitcoin crashes.
Ghash suddenly drops to around 30%.
Price of bitcoin goes back up.
Now Ghash is getting closer to 51% again.
Watch btc price crash again.

Someone is manipulating the btc price to keep it in the 500s.

btc should be around $1000 by now with all the good acceptance it's had lately: Apple, Google, Yahoo, Expedia, etc., etc.... Even the Feds have given it recognition as something they can auction off.

+100

[Este Nuno]

One thing that I don't understand is how people buying Cex.io shares effects Ghash's total hashing power.

The way I'm thinking of it is that this is hashing power that's already 'working' as it were and people are just buying the rights to mining that's already being done anyway. Is this not correct?

[eid]

One thing that I don't understand is how people buying Cex.io shares effects Ghash's total hashing power.

The way I'm thinking of it is that this is hashing power that's already 'working' as it were and people are just buying the rights to mining that's already being done anyway. Is this not correct?

I guess when they get more revenue, they buy more hardware.

[fryarminer]

One thing that I don't understand is how people buying Cex.io shares effects Ghash's total hashing power.

The way I'm thinking of it is that this is hashing power that's already 'working' as it were and people are just buying the rights to mining that's already being done anyway. Is this not correct?

I guess when they get more revenue, they buy more hardware.

That would make sense. But the hashing power that they do not sell I am sure they use to hash for themselves. They wouldn't turn it off until someone buys it.

[Este Nuno]

One thing that I don't understand is how people buying Cex.io shares effects Ghash's total hashing power.

The way I'm thinking of it is that this is hashing power that's already 'working' as it were and people are just buying the rights to mining that's already being done anyway. Is this not correct?

I guess when they get more revenue, they buy more hardware.

Yeah, that's a good point.

By buying shares on Cex.io you're indirectly contributing to their hashrate in a delayed fashion.

[VolanicEruptor]

I also find it strange that one of the bitcoin developers announced selling a huge stash of their bitcoins over this whole 51% fear.  I can understand why one would do that, but why announce it?  Sounds like a joined effort to spread FUD..

[ShakyhandsBTCer]

One thing that I don't understand is how people buying Cex.io shares effects Ghash's total hashing power.

The way I'm thinking of it is that this is hashing power that's already 'working' as it were and people are just buying the rights to mining that's already being done anyway. Is this not correct?

I guess when they get more revenue, they buy more hardware.

That would make sense. But the hashing power that they do not sell I am sure they use to hash for themselves. They wouldn't turn it off until someone buys it.

They would keep their unsold GH/s running as long as they produce more revenue then electric costs.

[fryarminer]

I also find it strange that one of the bitcoin developers announced selling a huge stash of their bitcoins over this whole 51% fear.  I can understand why one would do that, but why announce it?  Sounds like a joined effort to spread FUD..

This is an excellent point!!

[ABitNut]

I also find it strange that one of the bitcoin developers announced selling a huge stash of their bitcoins over this whole 51% fear.  I can understand why one would do that, but why announce it?  Sounds like a joined effort to spread FUD..

He said he consulted a lawyer and was advised to announce it to prevent any possible liabilities. I'm buying that, it sounds reasonable to me.

[Este Nuno]

I also find it strange that one of the bitcoin developers announced selling a huge stash of their bitcoins over this whole 51% fear.  I can understand why one would do that, but why announce it?  Sounds like a joined effort to spread FUD..

He said he consulted a lawyer and was advised to announce it to prevent any possible liabilities. I'm buying that, it sounds reasonable to me.

Heh, I could see a lawyer saying something like that. But in reality there's no way you could be held liable for something like that. It's like being required to say I'm going to be selling half my gold because I work at a goldsmith's shop.

[VolanicEruptor]

I also find it strange that one of the bitcoin developers announced selling a huge stash of their bitcoins over this whole 51% fear.  I can understand why one would do that, but why announce it?  Sounds like a joined effort to spread FUD..

He said he consulted a lawyer and was advised to announce it to prevent any possible liabilities. I'm buying that, it sounds reasonable to me.

Heh, I could see a lawyer saying something like that. But in reality there's no way you could be held liable for something like that. It's like saying I'm going to be selling half my gold because I work at a goldsmith's shop.

either way, I can't think of anything that rips away confidence in Bitcoin more than its own developers starting to split.    the good news is, next estimated difficulty change is 20%, and theres no way most of that is coming from Ghash.  we need large difficulty changes now to diversify the network.. so keep it comin'