Another landmark in the clusterfsck that is Bitcoin. I hope that when the dust has cleared this nonsense won't have destroyed the possibility for digital cash done right. (OTOH, if I put on the tinfoil hat and go into conspiracy theory mode, maybe Bitcoin is a false-flag attack on the idea of digital cash, put out there to prevent a proper, anonymous, community-based digital cash from taking hold. Wake me up when we have digital BNotes.)
It has to be noted that the problem isn't can't be solved by Ghash.io promising that it won't be evil, or by investors tied to the bubble realizing that this imperils their ability to profit and leaving the pool. The problem is that it's been proved possible that the system can become sufficiently concentrated that one group's being evil can crash the system.
The existential threat to Bitcoin its boosters said was impossible is now at hand (Quartz)
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 2: Bitcoin magazine has weighed in, asserting that the success of Ghash.io is indicative of a larger problem in Bitcoin: nearly unprecedented centralization of the mining upon which the currency’s security depends.