John Hopkins on Wed, 2 Dec 2015 18:11:50 +0100 (CET) |
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Re: <nettime> de Jong, Lovink, and Riemens: 10 Bitcoin |
Bitcoin mining is currently reduced to less than 10 operators. There is relatively small number of people involved, and none of these seem to have a standing army or a navy. How much would it cost to coerce/subvert 51% of these
It does sound a bit like other global mining industries -- coalescing to a few powerful operators over time, yet, while they are operating crucial enterprises in terms of globalism, they are subject to the whims of the market, and to government regulatory activities (up to and including the use of military force).
I wonder, though, about the personal lives of the miners. Are they enjoying the fruits of their labor?, what are their daily living conditions?, what kinds of stresses are incurred by their activities? As is well-known on this list, there is a terrible price paid by many of those who are at the contact point of natural resource extraction (and the ensuing wealth creation from the natural commons). Is there a corollary in Bitcoin? Why? Why not?
jh -- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org