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Posted February 22, 2022 08:34 · last edited February 22, 2022 08:45


siac
PaulM, I don't want to quote the entire comment, but you said:

"Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that cannot be changed, controlled or shut down by a single individual or at the very least, a small group of individuals (e.g. the "ethereum foundation" that runs ethereum). Bitcoin simply has no one in a position like that, it is a truly decentralised, unowned, uncontrollable blockchain."

This comment feels wrong to me, but I don't have a good enough understanding on the technology to say otherwise. My understanding is Ethereum, like Bitcoin, is decentralised and open source. How can the "ethereum foundation" shut it down? What's different about Bitcoin than other coins (from a technical point of view) that gives it those properties, and how come other coins can't do the same?

You're right, Etherium is decentralised with a huge pool of miners and isn't any more vulnerable to a 51% hack than Bitcoin (Bitcoin actually used to be quite vulnerable because more than 50% of mining occured in China before they banned it).

Back in 2016 someone found an exploit in the DAO smartcontract and managed to steal a good chunk of the money from the DAO. The etherium foundation negotiated with all miners to agree to roll back the blockchain to reverse the hack (IIRC they actually forked the chain from before the hack and renamed the old chain etherium classic). They said at the time that it was hard to do, was pretty political, and would be impossible to repeat with the growth of the currency.

I guess you can say that because Etherium has a foundation, the foundation can fork the Etherium blockchain whenever it wants and at whatever point it wants, as it does when there's an update and then it just renames the old chain to something and the new chain to Etherium. But it needs the miners on board whenever it does this. Bitcoin can't really do that, although there's been plenty of attempts to fork it and take it over (like Bitcoin cash) and in some ways that's a disadvantage as Bitcoin can't innovate. Hence it's expensive and slow.

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Unknown editor edited February 22, 2022 08:45

siac
PaulM, I don't want to quote the entire comment, but you said:

"Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that cannot be changed, controlled or shut down by a single individual or at the very least, a small group of individuals (e.g. the "ethereum foundation" that runs ethereum). Bitcoin simply has no one in a position like that, it is a truly decentralised, unowned, uncontrollable blockchain."

This comment feels wrong to me, but I don't have a good enough understanding on the technology to say otherwise. My understanding is Ethereum, like Bitcoin, is decentralised and open source. How can the "ethereum foundation" shut it down? What's different about Bitcoin than other coins (from a technical point of view) that gives it those properties, and how come other coins can't do the same?

You're right, Etherium is decentralised with a huge pool of miners and isn't any more vulnerable to a 51% hack than Bitcoin (Bitcoin actually used to be quite vulnerable because more than 50% of mining occured in China before they banned it).

Back in 2016 someone found an exploit in the DAO smartcontract and managed to steal a good chunk of the money from the DAO. The etherium foundation negotiated with all miners to agree to roll back the blockchain to reverse the hack (IIRC they forked the chain from before the hack and renamed the old chain etherium classic). They said at the time that it was hard to do and would be impossible to repeat with the growth of the currency.

I guess you can say that because Etherium has a foundation, they foundation can fork the Etherium blockchain whenever it wants and at whatever point it wants, as it does when there's an update and then it just renames the old chain to something and the new chain to Etherium. Bitcoin can't really do that, although there's been plenty of attempts to fork it and take it over (like Bitcoin cash) and in some ways that's a disadvantage as Bitcoin can't innovate. Hence it's expensive and slow.
Unknown editor edited February 22, 2022 08:42
siac
PaulM, I don't want to quote the entire comment, but you said:

"Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that cannot be changed, controlled or shut down by a single individual or at the very least, a small group of individuals (e.g. the "ethereum foundation" that runs ethereum). Bitcoin simply has no one in a position like that, it is a truly decentralised, unowned, uncontrollable blockchain."

This comment feels wrong to me, but I don't have a good enough understanding on the technology to say otherwise. My understanding is Ethereum, like Bitcoin, is decentralised and open source. How can the "ethereum foundation" shut it down? What's different about Bitcoin than other coins (from a technical point of view) that gives it those properties, and how come other coins can't do the same?

You're right, Etherium is decentralised with a huge pool of miners and isn't any more vulnerable to a 51% hack than Bitcoin (Bitcoin actually used to be quite vulnerable because more than 50% of mining occured in China before they banned it).

Back in 2016 someone found an exploit in the DAO smartcontract and managed to steal a good chunk of the money from the DAO. The etherium foundation negotiated with all miners to agree to roll back the blockchain to reverse the hack (IIRC they forked the chain from before the hack and renamed the old chain etherium classic). They said at the time that it was hard to do and would be impossible to repeat with the growth of the currency.
Unknown editor edited February 22, 2022 08:37
siac
PaulM, I don't want to quote the entire comment, but you said:

"Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that cannot be changed, controlled or shut down by a single individual or at the very least, a small group of individuals (e.g. the "ethereum foundation" that runs ethereum). Bitcoin simply has no one in a position like that, it is a truly decentralised, unowned, uncontrollable blockchain."

This comment feels wrong to me, but I don't have a good enough understanding on the technology to say otherwise. My understanding is Ethereum, like Bitcoin, is decentralised and open source. How can the "ethereum foundation" shut it down? What's different about Bitcoin than other coins (from a technical point of view) that gives it those properties, and how come other coins can't do the same?

You're right, Etherium is decentralised with a huge pool of miners and isn't any more vulnerable to a 51% hack than Bitcoin (Bitcoin actually used to be quite vulnerable because more than 50% of mining occured in China before they banned it).

Back in 2016 someone found an exploit in the DAO smartcontract and managed to steal a good chunk of the money from the DAO. The etherium foundation negotiated with all miners to agree to roll back the blockchain to reverse the hack. They said at the time that it was hard to do and would be impossible to repeat with the growth of the currency.
Unknown editor edited February 22, 2022 08:35
siac
PaulM, I don't want to quote the entire comment, but you said:

"Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that cannot be changed, controlled or shut down by a single individual or at the very least, a small group of individuals (e.g. the "ethereum foundation" that runs ethereum). Bitcoin simply has no one in a position like that, it is a truly decentralised, unowned, uncontrollable blockchain."

This comment feels wrong to me, but I don't have a good enough understanding on the technology to say otherwise. My understanding is Ethereum, like Bitcoin, is decentralised and open source. How can the "ethereum foundation" shut it down? What's different about Bitcoin than other coins (from a technical point of view) that gives it those properties, and how come other coins can't do the same?

You're right, Etherium is decentralised and isn't any more vulnerable to a 51% hack than Bitcoin (Bitcoin actually used to be quite vulnerable because more than 50% of mining ocured in China before they banned it).

Back in 2016 someone found an exploit in the DAO smartcontract and managed to steam a good chunk of the money in the DAO. The etherium foundation negotiated with all miners to agree to roll back the blockchain to reverse the hack. They said at the time that it was hard to do and would be impossible to repeat with the growth of the currency.