The easy way out
The easy way out
Posted Nov 9, 2012 11:03 UTC (Fri) by robert_s (subscriber, #42402)In reply to: The easy way out by Cyberax
Parent article: Let’s Limit the Effect of Software Patents, Since We Can’t Eliminate Them (Wired)
Or someone with enough computing power might cause bitcoin to ramp up their "work proof" hardness, to the point that normal people can't really compete.
And this is totally ignoring the possibility of finding any cryptographic flaws in the algorithms which could make fraud (or "theft" - don't know what you'd call it) easy.
Posted Nov 9, 2012 15:42 UTC (Fri)
by apoelstra (subscriber, #75205)
[Link] (1 responses)
The bitcoin network is currently doing roughly 25 trillion (10^12) hashes per second. It is the most powerful computing network in the world, so somebody would need to invest a -lot- of money, and a -lot- of power for a -lot- of time to muck with it in any meaningful way.
> And this is totally ignoring the possibility of finding any cryptographic flaws in the algorithms which could make fraud (or "theft" - don't know what you'd call it) easy.
This would be very bad -- and not just for bitcoin, but for everything using ECC.
Posted Nov 11, 2012 1:15 UTC (Sun)
by robert_s (subscriber, #42402)
[Link]
Even with theoretically perfect cryptography algorithms it is *very* difficult to design the surrounding mechanisms in a way that is immune to attack.
I mean even SSL/TLS protocol designers and implementers don't get it 100% right.
Posted Nov 9, 2012 17:57 UTC (Fri)
by jackb (guest, #41909)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Nov 11, 2012 1:16 UTC (Sun)
by robert_s (subscriber, #42402)
[Link]
The easy way out
The easy way out
The easy way out
Or someone with enough computing power might cause bitcoin to ramp up their "work proof" hardness, to the point that normal people can't really compete.
"Normal people" don't have any need to solve blocks. Ramping up the difficulty has no effect at all on most Bitcoin users.
The easy way out