I was reading several articles today about cryptocurrencies and I came across this study from the Department of Computer Science, Cornell University
It all started from a conversation on bitcointalk. Many people realized that it took less than 51% of the network to selfishly mine and take advantage of the blockchain. Although it is not proven the studies have the merits to be put forward, even if they are dismantled.
A famous article in this field dates from 2013, here it is , I invite you to read it quickly if it is not already the case.
You can read from the beginning that the problem that is raised here is not a small problem related to a faulty API or something like that, but that it is a much more serious problem intrinsically related to Bitcoin and its design.
You will be able to read there the way which would make it possible to circumvent the mining system necessary to Bitcoin, to take advantage of it even while being minority on the blockchain.
There is no point in re-detailing all the processes to achieve this goal because these articles already do it very well. You can form a solid opinion by consulting these articles and others that I did not quote of course.
My opinion is that at the moment the studies are not very conclusive. Some claim to have already detected this kind of action on the Bitcoin blockchain but nothing has been formally proven. So there is still a significant amount of doubt and especially in fact none of this has been implemented, or has been detected.
Better studies clearly showing the cost of such an operation and its viability over time would really be a bigger step towards asserting or disproving these assumptions, which are now more than 5 years old.
And what is your opinion on this subject? Let me know through the comments.
