> Note that from this perspective, a mining pool is effectively a single miner.... That isn't really true. A pool operator who tried to abuse their position to

> Note that from this perspective, a mining pool is effectively a single miner.... That isn't really true. A pool operator who tried to abuse their position to carry out a 51% attack against the interests of the pool members wouldn't retain their majority for long. Individual miners would switch to a different pool, or simply shut down their hardware. Conscientious pool participants could also scan the blocks they're asked to work on to detect such attempts before they are carried out, though I don't think any of the standard pool software does that yet. To sustain a 51% attack for a meaningful length of time you would have to own the hardware, not just manage it for others.