What do you guys think? Personally I am sick of the inefficiencies in blockchain. Having to download endless chains for hours, days, and knowing this tech wastes energy power that equaling to outputs of entire countries. Is it time or do we need to wait till end of Beta or Release stages?
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I certainly think it’s the right time for SAFE Network to come out as an alternative to blockchain and its scalability issues and energy use make it an easy target, but since Safecoin is not yet operational it’s a bit early to go all out for Bitcoin itself IMHO.
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The Bitmain 51% concerns are not a real threat to bitcoin.
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A 51% attack would undermine bitcoins security / store of value attributes, plummeting it’s price, ruining Bitmain’s business.
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Mining is becoming more decentralized over time
- More companies begin to manufacture high quality miners that compete with bitmain. (new companies like butterfly labs and canon entering the market are early examples)
- More investors / entrepreneurs will open large scale bitcoin mines
- Matt Carallos incoming BetterHash protocol (replacing Stratum) divides block construction and payouts into two protocols. “this will allow individual miners to select the transactions they include in blocks, rather than letting mining pool operators make that choice for them, while still benefiting from the stable payouts that connecting to a pool provides.”
- Lighting is developing well, cheaper transactions and scalability are incoming.
Part of the concern is that as the price drops, more and more miners will go busto or stop mining, increasing the percentage of hashing power that Bitmain has.
Would Bitmain not face the same problem?
We don’t know how much these companies are paying to mine 1 bitcoin. It could be well under $1000 for all we know depending on the company and what kind of energy deals they have.
Still Bitmain is disincentived to harm the blockchain they depend on to keep their business running.
To not be laughed out of the room, we need a working and tested product. Bitcoin is a pig, but it worked when it was first released and has done ever since.
When safecoin is transferrable, and when we can point to the apps that many here are creating, and when we can credibly say that the network is permanently live… that is when we can take the head on assault. What can be done until then is to get developers excited to flesh out the app and content possibilities of the network, and get the vault/farming process to be as one click, multiplatform as possible.
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These miners who are only profitable at peak bubble prices had no business mining in the first place if they can’t mine sustain-ably through downtrends.
It would be suicide for Bitmain to attack Bitcoin.
- That would kill the price.
- The other miners can soft fork to make mining with Bitmain Miners impossible or something along those lines
- Bitmain would be boycotted
- Any effects of an attack can be rolled back upon consensus by everyone else, without much damage done to Bitcoin in the long run
Other thoughts
- As BTC price drops BTC miners can attack all other Shitcoins that are mineable with same hardware sending marketcap and hasrate flooding to BTC for safety as shitcoins fall one by one.
- BetterHash Protocol can not be underestimated for its effects on decentralization of mining. Pools loose power to decide block construction for miners within them.
Don’t count on Bitcoin dying so that MaidSafe can flourish.
They have the deepest pockets and could win the war of attrition.
Its kind of a doom and gloom scenario. Bitmain is at what 42%-43% right now?
And its still assuming Bitmain would benefit from attacking Bitcoin more than they would benefit by not attacking Bitcoin.
I don’t think it’s so much about if they would attack or not. Rather, having an entity achieve such a position in the first place shows vulnerability, and would be somewhat destabilizing.
We have to wait for real tests because anyone want see some results first and not only believe in what was said.
Like Alpha 4 or Beta is better timing than today.