On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 12:38 AM, John Dillon <john.dillon...@googlemail.com> wrote: > I understand that Gavin has spent effort on security efforts against > small-scale attackers. It's the fact that he is so dismissive of the > threat that large attackers play that is what bothers me. But if I am > being divisive I understand.
I cannot speak for Gavin, but speaking more generally, large attackers tend to belong in a thought-class all their own. Example 1: if some super-ASIC miner arises with 90% of hash power, and he starts behaving in a way contrary to the useful functioning of bitcoin, the community might decide to change the PoW algorithm at block height N. Example 2: If someone large DDoS's the entire P2P network, which is possible, manual intervention would be required to straighten out the mess. In each case, it's more about the community's mutual defense actions than any prepared defense. Speaking even more generally, bitcoin may be a billion-dollar invention, but that doesn't mean it has any funding for network defense! Unless cost structures and user attitudes change, development and deployment of major defense strategies seems unlikely. Which implies the community will simply wait for a [attack | explosion | crisis], and then hope we can unwind/repair the damage afterwards. -- Jeff Garzik exMULTI, Inc. jgar...@exmulti.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Precog is a next-generation analytics platform capable of advanced analytics on semi-structured data. The platform includes APIs for building apps and a phenomenal toolset for data science. Developers can use our toolset for easy data analysis & visualization. Get a free account! http://www2.precog.com/precogplatform/slashdotnewsletter _______________________________________________ Bitcoin-development mailing list Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development
