

Bitcoin will fail without decentralized mining - dperfect
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=399313.0

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humbledrone
One solution for this already exists: P2Pool. From the wiki page, "P2Pool is a
decentralized Bitcoin mining pool that works by creating a peer-to-peer
network of miner nodes." The key thing is that since it's p2p, there's no
owner of the network who can use it to perform a 51% attack.

P2Pool is not perfect, but it works and it shows that decentralized pools
mining are possible. With some improvement, it (or something like it) could be
a replacement for all centralized mining pools.

[https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/P2Pool](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/P2Pool)

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sktrdie
You obviously haven't clicked on the link. P2Pool requires too many resources
(a full-node). Whereas most of current mining, ran by trusted third-party
pools, can even be done off of a raspberry pi, which requires much less
resources.

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verroq
You can just connect to a P2Pool node you know. You don't need to set up your
own. Check out [http://whatisp2pool.com](http://whatisp2pool.com) if you still
want to learn more.

~~~
shawabawa3
Isn't that again just recentralizing? The P2Pool nodes could be malicious

~~~
verroq
Well that's what the share chain is for. Again, if you don't trust the nodes
you can run your own.

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fragsworth
It's likely that if bitcoin hits some serious roadblocks and the protocol
needs to change, an altcoin will have solved the problem and most people will
switch.

For instance, the proof-of-stake coins (peercoin, novacoin) are far more
resilient to these problems.

I'm curious if they can agree on, develop, and deploy a protocol change far
enough in advance to prevent a mass exodus to another altcoin.

~~~
mvkel
Doubtful that everyone will switch to some yet-to-be-determined altcoin.

Bitcoin is open source. Nothing is preventing its flaws from being patched.
That's all altcoins are anyway; Bitcoin with a patch to a perceived problem
with the protocol.

With a market cap of $21bn, that kind of capitalization doesn't disappear
overnight, which would need to happen to counteract a massive flaw that arises
from centralized mining.

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ksrm
I'm more immediately concerned about this double-spending attack that was
linked to in the thread:
[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=327767.0](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=327767.0)

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memorycoin
This is a problem we're trying to solve with MemoryCoin - decentralized mining
by using commodity hardware and distribution. It's already possible to pool
mine direct from the GUI and we're currently looking at integrating P2Pool
with the client for increased decentralization.
[http://memorycoin.org/manifesto/](http://memorycoin.org/manifesto/)

Efforts are funded by payments made in the blockchain voted for by the
shareholders (coin owners). [http://btcgeek.com/memorycoin-trying-something-
brilliant/](http://btcgeek.com/memorycoin-trying-something-brilliant/)

