> The 51% can ignore the 49%'s blocks, but there is no way the 51% can force the 49% to ignore THEIR blocks. If the 51% can ignore the blocks from the 49%, the

> The 51% can ignore the 49%'s blocks, but there is no way the 51% can force the 49% to ignore THEIR blocks. If the 51% can ignore the blocks from the 49%, then why does it matter what the 49% is doing? Occasionally the 49% will be able to mine a block and temporarily create the longest chain, but the 51% can always just ignore that block and continue mining off of the one before it - eventually their chain will be the longest and the block(s) from the 49% will be lost. Really this isn't theoretical, it happens all the time by accident when two blocks get mined off of the same previous block. When that happens one of the two blocks gets lost, and the only difference with this scenario is that the 51% have enough hash power to ensure that their blocks are the ones that always (eventually) win and the 49% blocks are always lost.