

Ghash Bitcoin mining pool has 48% of mining power - infruset
https://blockchain.info/pools?timespan=24hrs&

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mekael
I for one welcome our new hashing overlords.

On a serious note though, despite GHash.IO having announced it will not seek
to break the 51% line, is there a method by which another mining pool can use
this fact to their advantage, a roundabout method of collusion?

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iancarroll
It's going up and down, as long as it doesn't go past 50% it's not really
newsworthy.

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infruset
Well, 50% is an arbitrary barrier, but the possibility of a double spend is
already there at 48%.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if p is the percentage of hashing power you have,
then mining amounts to throwing a biased coin with probability p of showing
heads, and to double spend with 6 confirmations amounts to getting 6 heads in
a row. p=48 or p=50 is a small difference in that respect.

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Igglyboo
50% is not arbitrary. If they have more than 50% they can pull off double
spends at their discretion, if they have less than 50% there is some element
of chance.

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hartator
What infrusnet is saying, is you already have odds to double spending even
with < 50%. You just have to try hard enough, by try hard enough, is doing a
lot of transactions.

Moreover, it's possible that one of the other 52% colludes with GHash.IO and
they have more than 50%.

