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Comment by dragontamer | Hacker News Reader

Then why are you using BTC in the first place? The US Fed and US Government has no reason to act dishonestly. The value of the dollar relies on us trusting the US Government / US Fed to protect it.

If switching over to BTC means "trusting GHash.io"... then nothing has changed.

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The difference is that if GHash.io launches an attack, miners have the choice to move to another pool. If the US government inflates the currency (yet again) there is nothing to do.

If GHash.io launches a "no one else can mine" attack, then there won't be any other pools to move to.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Attacker_has_a_lot_of_... * Prevent some or all other miners from mining any valid blocks

Unless we hard fork...

I think you might want to look into the history of disastrous collapses of currencies. To think the US dollar is somehow impervious to the same threats is naive.

I'm criticizing BTC, not defending the dollar. Even precious commodities like Gold (Black Friday, 1869) and Silver (Panic of 1873) have been manipulated and crashed throughout the years.

All currencies suffer through booms and busts, even precious Gold and Silver.

However, BTC is unique in that wielding 51% hashing power grants you powers beyond what has ever been seen before in a currency. A properly wielded 51% can absolutely destroy an entire coin system (RIP Feathercoin).

Do NOT take the 51% attack lightly. This could mean the absolute ruin of BTC in its entirety.

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