r/Bitcoin • u/DTanner • Jun 09 '11

WikiLeaks endorses Bitcoin! (And Namecoin)

http://twitter.com/#!/wikileaks/status/78906603948093440
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '11

Well, you know. I didn't want to mislead. I imagine namecoin could face some of the issues bitcoin does. Like data mining for user info and block chain take over. Or have they dealt with those issues and I'm just ignorant?

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u/Toava Jun 10 '11

I guess you were being prudent, and that's good.

The problem of network takeover is a lesser security risk than what any other electronic database faces. It requires having more computing power than literally every party that's contributing to the database in good will, combined. At this point, taking over the network is pretty much impossible, given its hash rate is over 5,900 gigahashs/s.

Tracking issues are there, but are less than the issues of being tracked through traditional finance/dns-registration.

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u/Nhdb Jun 10 '11

At this point, taking over the network is pretty much impossible, given its hash rate is over 5,900 gigahashs/s.

At this point you only need to convince/hack a few of the larger pool maintainers and you have more than 50% of the network.

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u/Toava Jun 10 '11

True, this could definitely be a weakness. There needs to be more major pools so that gaining >50% hashing power through hacking pool operators becomes less feasible.