>I started this thread as a sanity check on myself, because I keep seeing smart people saying that two chains could persist for more than a few days after a hard fork, and I still don't see how that would possibly work. When you start with the assumption that anyone who disagrees with you is insane or crazy, I can see why you have such difficulty. On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 1:01 PM, Gavin Andresen wrote: > We really shouldn't have to go over "Bitcoin 101" on this mailing list, > and this discussion should move to the not-yet-created more general > discussion list. I started this thread as a sanity check on myself, > because I keep seeing smart people saying that two chains could persist for > more than a few days after a hard fork, and I still don't see how that > would possibly work. > > So: "fraud" would be 51% miners sending you bitcoin in exchange for > something of value, you wait for confirmations and send them that something > of value, and then the 51% reverses the transaction. > > Running a full node doesn't help. > > On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 1:55 PM, Allen Piscitello < > allen.piscitello@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >A dishonest miner majority can commit fraud against you, they can mine >> only empty blocks, they can do various other things that render your money >> worthless. >> >> Mining empty blocks is not fraud. >> >> If you want to use terms like "honest miners" and "fraud", please define >> them so we can at least be on the same page. >> >> I am defining an honest miner as one that follows the rules of the >> protocol. Obviously your definition is different. >> >> On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 12:51 PM, Mike Hearn wrote: >> >>> >because Bitcoin's basic security assumption is that a supermajority of >>>> miners are 'honest.' >>>> >>>> Only if you rely on SPV. >>>> >>> >>> No, you rely on miners honesty even if you run a full node. This is in >>> the white paper. A dishonest miner majority can commit fraud against you, >>> they can mine only empty blocks, they can do various other things that >>> render your money worthless. >>> >> >> > > > -- > -- > Gavin Andresen >