USA government debt ceiling

[Mirimir]

On 10/21/2015 12:30 AM, Georgi Guninski wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 07:32:46PM -0600, Mirimir wrote:
>> 2015-10-20: https://www.bitcoincharts.com/charts/volumepie/
> 
> 
> I have very vague idea how bitcoin works.
> 
> Isn't dishonest actor with enough resources danger to the integrity of
> bitcoins?

Yes. But this is about block mining, not Bitcoin ownership.

> According to this:
> https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1nisdy/were_glenn_greenwald_and_janine_gibson_of_the/ccjh2mq
> 
> ---
> Nope. The way bitcoin is run requires 51% of "agreement" before you can
> break the system. It would cost well into the hundreds of millions of
> dollars to get that now, so the system is pretty safe.
> ...
> Minor correction, apparently it would be about $500 million to execute a
> 51% attack - which is pretty huge.
> ---
> 
> The above was written two years ago, so the number is likely larger now.
> 
> Later was claimed that such 51% attack will be rolled back.
> 
> How is stuff rolled back in decentralized system of which >=51% is
> dishonest?

The system would fork. There would be chaos. Because payments would be
unmade. People would need to sort it out.