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I disagree. The ability to reach consensus within a community does not necessarily imply centralization.

croon 10y ago
Genuine question: As a self-described fairly intelligent tech person, the blockchain and its working is still fairly magical to me, so answer me this: Would it be theoretically possible for big players on the market (read EvilCorp) to push the market over to a fork by convincing enough of its cronies to make the switch? I'm assuming what you mean is that market consensus is (at least) 51% of the market accepting the fork as "the truth" in terms of value by making further business there instead. Or would it not even require 51% but merely (for example) 20% of the capital that covers 80% of the transactions? I also assume anyone that wanted could still stick to the former blockchain as long as it has other participants to deal with? Am I wrong in expecting a synecdoche to the current "real world economy" within cryptocurrency that it loses its democratization when the top X% can force for example a fork?
- aakilfernandes 10y ago
  While I would hardly describe the players as "EvilCorp", or "Cronies", thats exactly what is happening now. If the protocol developers and exchanges switch to a fork, there's very little the community can do. Sticking with the former chain is difficult because 1) everyone else is calling a different chain "Ethereum" therefore you probably need to change your name to something else, 2) You need to be concerned with mining attacks
- onestone 10y ago
  Hard forks don't require any particular adoption percentage (unlike soft forks). The network simply splits in two chains. If one of the chains is obviously weaker, it usually dies quickly, as it's no longer economically viable. In this case the sentiment among actual ETH holders is ~ 85% in favor of the hard fork. Check http://carbonvote.com/ http://carbonvote.com/ (it's not a binding vote, just an indication showing which way the wind blows).

croon 10y ago

Genuine question: As a self-described fairly intelligent tech person, the blockchain and its working is still fairly magical to me, so answer me this: Would it be theoretically possible for big players on the market (read EvilCorp) to push the market over to a fork by convincing enough of its cronies to make the switch? I'm assuming what you mean is that market consensus is (at least) 51% of the market accepting the fork as "the truth" in terms of value by making further business there instead. Or would it not even require 51% but merely (for example) 20% of the capital that covers 80% of the transactions? I also assume anyone that wanted could still stick to the former blockchain as long as it has other participants to deal with? Am I wrong in expecting a synecdoche to the current "real world economy" within cryptocurrency that it loses its democratization when the top X% can force for example a fork?

aakilfernandes 10y ago
While I would hardly describe the players as "EvilCorp", or "Cronies", thats exactly what is happening now. If the protocol developers and exchanges switch to a fork, there's very little the community can do. Sticking with the former chain is difficult because 1) everyone else is calling a different chain "Ethereum" therefore you probably need to change your name to something else, 2) You need to be concerned with mining attacks
onestone 10y ago
Hard forks don't require any particular adoption percentage (unlike soft forks). The network simply splits in two chains. If one of the chains is obviously weaker, it usually dies quickly, as it's no longer economically viable. In this case the sentiment among actual ETH holders is ~ 85% in favor of the hard fork. Check http://carbonvote.com/ http://carbonvote.com/ (it's not a binding vote, just an indication showing which way the wind blows).