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Blockchain Questions

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Robert J. Cordingley

Blockchain Questions

From The Verge* with my emphases;

'Like blockchain technologies, this information will be write-only...' - funny!

'Blockchain entities like Bitcoin are distributed among lots of different players require a lot of power (computing and literal) to compile and check — as much as a small country,' - Really?

So there's no way to hack a blockchain? Or perhaps I should say why is it so secure?

*http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/10/14880094/deepmind-health-uk-data-blockchain-audit

Robert C

-- 
Cirrillian 
Web Design & Development
Santa Fe, NM
http://cirrillian.com
281-989-6272 (cell)
Member Design Corps of Santa Fe

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Prof David West

Re: Blockchain Questions

there is no known way to hack a blockchain, but "wallets" can be stolen - there have been several instances where large bitcoin banks have been hacked and lost all their virtual currency. A friend is a bitcoin miner and he uses four computers, with four heavy duty graphics processors - all water cooled to do so. A lot of computing power but still within the budget of an individual - no where near that of a "small country."

davew

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017, at 08:09 AM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:

From The Verge* with my emphases;
'Like blockchain technologies, this information will be write-only...' - funny!
'Blockchain entities like Bitcoin are distributed among lots of different players require a lot of power (computing and literal) to compile and check — as much as a small country,' - Really?
So there's no way to hack a blockchain? Or perhaps I should say why is it so secure?
*http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/10/14880094/deepmind-health-uk-data-blockchain-audit
Robert C
-- 
Cirrillian 
Web Design & Development
Santa Fe, NM
http://cirrillian.com
281-989-6272 (cell)
Member Design Corps of Santa Fe
============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

Marcus G. Daniels

Re: Blockchain Questions

There are large mining facilities in central Washington and Tibet and elsewhere that would have an energy budget like a Facebook facility or supercomputing center. Because mining gets more competitive in time, the power budgets keep going up. For example, running five modern bitcoin miners nonstop will yield a power bill of about $700 a month. Multiply that by hundreds and you get the idea..

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2014/11/05/bitcoin-clusters-emerge-in-cloud-computings-footprints/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-chinas-tibetan-highlands-the-bizarre-world-of-bitcoin-mining-finds-a-new-home/2016/09/12/7729cbea-657e-11e6-b4d8-33e931b5a26d_story.html

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 2:17 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Blockchain Questions

davew

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017, at 08:09 AM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:

From The Verge* with my emphases;

'Like blockchain technologies, this information will be write-only...' - funny!

'Blockchain entities like Bitcoin are distributed among lots of different players require a lot of power (computing and literal) to compile and check — as much as a small country,' - Really?

So there's no way to hack a blockchain? Or perhaps I should say why is it so secure?

*http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/10/14880094/deepmind-health-uk-data-blockchain-audit

Robert C
-- 
Cirrillian 
Web Design & Development
Santa Fe, NM
http://cirrillian.com
281-989-6272 (cell)
Member Design Corps of Santa Fe
============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

Marcus G. Daniels

Re: Blockchain Questions

In reply to this post by Prof David West

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bitcoin-could-consume-as-much-electricity-as-denmark-by-2020

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 2:17 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Blockchain Questions

davew

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017, at 08:09 AM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:

From The Verge* with my emphases;

'Like blockchain technologies, this information will be write-only...' - funny!

'Blockchain entities like Bitcoin are distributed among lots of different players require a lot of power (computing and literal) to compile and check — as much as a small country,' - Really?

So there's no way to hack a blockchain? Or perhaps I should say why is it so secure?

*http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/10/14880094/deepmind-health-uk-data-blockchain-audit

Robert C
-- 
Cirrillian 
Web Design & Development
Santa Fe, NM
http://cirrillian.com
281-989-6272 (cell)
Member Design Corps of Santa Fe
============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

Brent Auble

Re: Blockchain Questions

Hopefully I won't kill this thread too...

If my still somewhat limited sense of blockchain, at least for Bitcoin, is correct, there are two pieces to this process that are being somewhat conflated. The first is that there is computation required to validate a block of transactions, and that computation requires a lot of horsepower because the first to finish it gets credited with the associated bitcoins. The result is a hash for the block of transactions which gets added to a publicly available ledger verifying the accuracy of the block. That calculation can be done by a set of heavy duty machines, but they definitely face competition from bitcoin farms in China (Tibet) where they can get energy for cheap.

The second "hack" is being able to control or fake the progress of the ledger. Essentially, more than half of the people calculating the hash for a block need to agree on it to verify that the block is accurate. If you could throw enough computing power (e.g., a small country's worth) at the Bitcoin process and generate more than hall of all block validations, you could theoretically make up your own (fake) hashes and take control of the ledger because everyone else couldn't override your assertions. So, it's theoretically possible (and China, if it controlled all bitcoin farmers in the country, is close) to take over the Bitcoin blockchain, but it's practically unlikely.

Brent

From: Marcus Daniels <[hidden email]>
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Blockchain Questions

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bitcoin-could-consume-as-much-electricity-as-denmark-by-2020

From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Prof David West
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 2:17 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Blockchain Questions

davew

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017, at 08:09 AM, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:

From The Verge* with my emphases;

'Like blockchain technologies, this information will be write-only...' - funny!

'Blockchain entities like Bitcoin are distributed among lots of different players require a lot of power (computing and literal) to compile and check — as much as a small country,' - Really?

So there's no way to hack a blockchain? Or perhaps I should say why is it so secure?

*http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/10/14880094/deepmind-health-uk-data-blockchain-audit

Robert C
-- 
Cirrillian 
Web Design & Development
Santa Fe, NM
http://cirrillian.com
281-989-6272 (cell)
Member Design Corps of Santa Fe
============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

Barry MacKichan

Re: Blockchain Questions

In reply to this post by Robert J. Cordingley

Funny yes, but man, it can be optimized!

--Barry

On 10 Mar 2017, at 8:09, Robert J. Cordingley wrote:

> 'Like blockchain technologies, this information will
> be **write-only**...' - funny!

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove