Like a lot of us, I discovered the details of blockchain at the beginning of this year. I work in the media Industry which means i'm lucky enough to have breaks between contracts.
I decided to lock myself in a room and study it.
I found many great things about the blockchain, and its security seemed its killer application. But as mining becomes solely the job of specialists, the 50% attack becomes a genuine threat.
For those of you that don't know, the 51% attack refers to the ability of anyone that controls more than 51% of the bitcoin blockchain to control it at will. This may sound like something from the movie'The matrix', but its only now that it is becoming a potential reality.
The security of bitcoin relies on miners solving increasingly complex mathematical problems in return for coins. In the early days, this meant that lot of computers on the network validating transactions. But its become pointless to mine this on home computers. So 3 companies virtually run the entire system.
If they decided to work together, they could control the system in the very near future.
For me this is an issue, that hasn't really been addressed.
Does anyone else know if we should be worried?
I think the 51% Attack is more a theoretical attack.
In practice it will not happen.
I agree that it always seemed unlikely. The issue I've been trying to grapple with is this..
If it is possible for 51% of the network to be controlled by a small number of individuals, would it make any sense to even carry out the attack. I presume such miners would be carrying a large amount of valuable bitcoin, and any attempt to undermine the value wouldn't make sense.
The other side of the argument is that cartel style organisations are able to afford the vast expense to mine nowadays. If they can do that, is it feasible that they may orchestrate a 51% attack?
The glimmer of light is, that only a few organisations could achieve it, so they would be holding a smoking gun.
Interesting..