"The Existential Threat to Bitcoin Its Boosters Said Was Impossible Is Now at Hand"

From Economic Policy Journal:

A doomsday scenario that has long been dismissed by bitcoin’s biggest boosters is now a clear and present danger.  At 3am ET this morning, a single bitcoin mining collective known as Ghash.io reached 45% of the computing power of all global bitcoin miners, just six points short of the 51% that would be required to break bitcoin by arbitrarily manipulating the record of future transactions upon which it rests. The result could be, at minimum, “double spending” of existing bitcoins, which would render the currency effectively unusable.

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To put this in context: Imagine that tomorrow, a single corporate entity gained the ability to clone all of its dollars, and then immediately went on an asset buying spree. To say that it would undermine trust in the US dollar would be an understatement. That’s what could happen to bitcoin.

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Update: Ghash.io has issued a press release on the potential for it to launch an attack on Bitcoin. The mining pool says it is taking steps to make sure that Ghash.io never reaches 51% of the world’s bitcoin mining capacity, “as it will do serious damage to the Bitcoin community, of which we are part of.” ...MORE Updates