You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: January 10: "How is ETC not at 0 USD? // HACK AFTERMATH
You know, what you said after the tweet you referenced does not actually refute the contents of his tweet. It's quite compatible.
You are right-- Something that got 51% attacked clearly shows that it failed to get sufficient distribution of its permissionless resources. But that doesn't mean there's necessarily anything wrong with the protocol itself. Once a coin "resets" itself, it's still possible for it to maintain a sufficiently decentralized state. But trust would certainly be an issue at that point.
Posted using Partiko Android
For me its not about the possibility of achieving the sufficiently decentralized state. Its about the likelihood of centralization occurring. If centralization can happen so easily that a reorganization of the blockchain can occur, like in this case, then a reset doesnt mean much imo.
I suppose I fail to see the distinction here. I pretty much agree with that sentiment.
It almost feels like really only one true coin can be sufficiently accepted that it wouldn't be so easily attacked. I mean you know that one website that just lists "here are the costs for 52%-attacking chain X"...
Posted using Partiko Android
I know.. But DPOS is a different beast. The thing about STEEM for example is that only 20% of the total supply are on the exchanges and even if someone did try a 51% attack, it would take them a very long period of time, the cost of purchase would be progressively higher, there is a human factor involved so it wouldnt slip pass unnoticed like with ETC, and they would essentially be hurting their investment....
So really... The "cost" of a 51% attack on STEEM is infinitely higher then that of BTC since the gain from attempting to do such a thing here is a negative value.
A 51% attack can only happen on STEEM by the witnesses. They would have to collaborate to gain the required control to pull off an attack. This is why witness voting is important. With other currencies, anyone with the resources can build enough control to create an attack. When I say anyone, I a mean anyone! They can be hackers, criminals, scammers, anyone... They don't even have to be a group of people. It can be a single person with enough computing power. STEEM is much safer in that respect. The witnesses must gain our confidence and must be leaders. The more one has invested, the more important it is to research the witnesses to weed out any that could possibly be willing to attack STEEM. Remember @jerrybanfield? He was pulling some shady shit and was ejected fast. It was so fast, he must have gotten whiplash. People that have invested a bunch here don't tolerate scammers as witnesses.
I'm not 100% sure on this, but my understanding is that there would need to be 14 witnesses in the top 20 spots all collaborating to pull of an attack on STEEM. That would be unrealistic to conceive.
I also don't think that the other witnesses including those not in the top 20 would not see this coming and the conversation would go viral among our community before anything bad were to happen.
Also, did you see the news?
I can't verify that this is true or not, but this article is reporting that the majority of Dash mining is controlled by a single person. (Ripe for a 51% attack). https://www.ccn.com/dash-cryptocurrency-single-wallet-owner-possesses-51-of-hashrate/
Yet another reason that STEEM is so much better.
Apparently the thing with Dash is that you cant buy enough Asics to pull this off and that those that are currently mining Dash wouldnt do it because that would hurt the main cryptocurrency that uses Asics.
Im not sure about this but i for sure wouldnt hold any of my funds in Dash.
Yeah i think thats about right. But even with that said, a 51% attack on STEEM would be pointless. What would you achieve?
You would lose millions of dollars attempting it.
At least thats how i see it going. Im not a tech savy so this is guesswork based on what i know.
It is way too difficult to accomplish.
Right, this is true. The possibility of being attacked in a flash is pretty scary :)