From 6f1665e26c1ad73c64aac3c8153e8c17faa956b7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bryan Bishop Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 20:51:18 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 1/3] fix error in statement about "majority of miners" Instead of talking about a majority of miners, it is better to talk about a majority of available hashrate. There is no way to determine the number of miners that exist, and it is confusing to talk about a "majority of miners" as a consequence of this and other reasons. --- _translations/en.yml | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_translations/en.yml b/_translations/en.yml index 7c5abe1ed1..c3f84d808c 100644 --- a/_translations/en.yml +++ b/_translations/en.yml @@ -377,7 +377,7 @@ en: hackedtxt2: "There are often misconceptions about thefts and security breaches that happened on diverse exchanges and businesses. Although these events are unfortunate, none of them involve Bitcoin itself being hacked, nor imply inherent flaws in Bitcoin; just like a bank robbery doesn't mean that the dollar is compromised. However, it is accurate to say that a complete set of good practices and intuitive security solutions is needed to give users better protection of their money, and to reduce the general risk of theft and loss. Over the course of the last few years, such security features have quickly developed, such as wallet encryption, offline wallets, hardware wallets, and multi-signature transactions." collude: "Could users collude against Bitcoin?" colludetxt1: "It is not possible to change the Bitcoin protocol that easily. Any Bitcoin client that doesn't comply with the same rules cannot enforce their own rules on other users. As per the current specification, double spending is not possible on the same block chain, and neither is spending bitcoins without a valid signature. Therefore, It is not possible to generate uncontrolled amounts of bitcoins out of thin air, spend other users' funds, corrupt the network, or anything similar." - colludetxt2: "However, a majority of miners could arbitrarily choose to block or reverse recent transactions. A majority of users can also put pressure for some changes to be adopted. Because Bitcoin only works correctly with a complete consensus between all users, changing the protocol can be very difficult and requires an overwhelming majority of users to adopt the changes in such a way that remaining users have nearly no choice but to follow. As a general rule, it is hard to imagine why any Bitcoin user would choose to adopt any change that could compromise their own money." + colludetxt2: "However, a majority of miner hashrate could arbitrarily choose to block or reverse recent transactions. A majority of users can also put pressure for some changes to be adopted. Because Bitcoin only works correctly with a complete consensus between all users, changing the protocol can be very difficult and requires an overwhelming majority of users to adopt the changes in such a way that remaining users have nearly no choice but to follow. As a general rule, it is hard to imagine why any Bitcoin user would choose to adopt any change that could compromise their own money." quantum: "Is Bitcoin vulnerable to quantum computing?" quantumtxt1: "Yes, most systems relying on cryptography in general are, including traditional banking systems. However, quantum computers don't yet exist and probably won't for a while. In the event that quantum computing could be an imminent threat to Bitcoin, the protocol could be upgraded to use post-quantum algorithms. Given the importance that this update would have, it can be safely expected that it would be highly reviewed by developers and adopted by all Bitcoin users." help: "Help" From 43ed2cf8b597319cb0bc017e61b3ea131f0453c3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bryan Bishop Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 09:25:30 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 2/3] switch wording to "powerful mining" https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.org/pull/713#issuecomment-70396180 --- _translations/en.yml | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_translations/en.yml b/_translations/en.yml index c3f84d808c..0ccf388954 100644 --- a/_translations/en.yml +++ b/_translations/en.yml @@ -377,7 +377,7 @@ en: hackedtxt2: "There are often misconceptions about thefts and security breaches that happened on diverse exchanges and businesses. Although these events are unfortunate, none of them involve Bitcoin itself being hacked, nor imply inherent flaws in Bitcoin; just like a bank robbery doesn't mean that the dollar is compromised. However, it is accurate to say that a complete set of good practices and intuitive security solutions is needed to give users better protection of their money, and to reduce the general risk of theft and loss. Over the course of the last few years, such security features have quickly developed, such as wallet encryption, offline wallets, hardware wallets, and multi-signature transactions." collude: "Could users collude against Bitcoin?" colludetxt1: "It is not possible to change the Bitcoin protocol that easily. Any Bitcoin client that doesn't comply with the same rules cannot enforce their own rules on other users. As per the current specification, double spending is not possible on the same block chain, and neither is spending bitcoins without a valid signature. Therefore, It is not possible to generate uncontrolled amounts of bitcoins out of thin air, spend other users' funds, corrupt the network, or anything similar." - colludetxt2: "However, a majority of miner hashrate could arbitrarily choose to block or reverse recent transactions. A majority of users can also put pressure for some changes to be adopted. Because Bitcoin only works correctly with a complete consensus between all users, changing the protocol can be very difficult and requires an overwhelming majority of users to adopt the changes in such a way that remaining users have nearly no choice but to follow. As a general rule, it is hard to imagine why any Bitcoin user would choose to adopt any change that could compromise their own money." + colludetxt2: "However, powerful mining could arbitrarily choose to block or reverse recent transactions. A majority of users can also put pressure for some changes to be adopted. Because Bitcoin only works correctly with a complete consensus between all users, changing the protocol can be very difficult and requires an overwhelming majority of users to adopt the changes in such a way that remaining users have nearly no choice but to follow. As a general rule, it is hard to imagine why any Bitcoin user would choose to adopt any change that could compromise their own money." quantum: "Is Bitcoin vulnerable to quantum computing?" quantumtxt1: "Yes, most systems relying on cryptography in general are, including traditional banking systems. However, quantum computers don't yet exist and probably won't for a while. In the event that quantum computing could be an imminent threat to Bitcoin, the protocol could be upgraded to use post-quantum algorithms. Given the importance that this update would have, it can be safely expected that it would be highly reviewed by developers and adopted by all Bitcoin users." help: "Help" From 9d6b832ac0805ae28c24f329aaabbc61050db6be Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bryan Bishop Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 14:47:32 -0600 Subject: [PATCH 3/3] powerful mining -> powerful miners --- _translations/en.yml | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/_translations/en.yml b/_translations/en.yml index 0ccf388954..5d16c19deb 100644 --- a/_translations/en.yml +++ b/_translations/en.yml @@ -377,7 +377,7 @@ en: hackedtxt2: "There are often misconceptions about thefts and security breaches that happened on diverse exchanges and businesses. Although these events are unfortunate, none of them involve Bitcoin itself being hacked, nor imply inherent flaws in Bitcoin; just like a bank robbery doesn't mean that the dollar is compromised. However, it is accurate to say that a complete set of good practices and intuitive security solutions is needed to give users better protection of their money, and to reduce the general risk of theft and loss. Over the course of the last few years, such security features have quickly developed, such as wallet encryption, offline wallets, hardware wallets, and multi-signature transactions." collude: "Could users collude against Bitcoin?" colludetxt1: "It is not possible to change the Bitcoin protocol that easily. Any Bitcoin client that doesn't comply with the same rules cannot enforce their own rules on other users. As per the current specification, double spending is not possible on the same block chain, and neither is spending bitcoins without a valid signature. Therefore, It is not possible to generate uncontrolled amounts of bitcoins out of thin air, spend other users' funds, corrupt the network, or anything similar." - colludetxt2: "However, powerful mining could arbitrarily choose to block or reverse recent transactions. A majority of users can also put pressure for some changes to be adopted. Because Bitcoin only works correctly with a complete consensus between all users, changing the protocol can be very difficult and requires an overwhelming majority of users to adopt the changes in such a way that remaining users have nearly no choice but to follow. As a general rule, it is hard to imagine why any Bitcoin user would choose to adopt any change that could compromise their own money." + colludetxt2: "However, powerful miners could arbitrarily choose to block or reverse recent transactions. A majority of users can also put pressure for some changes to be adopted. Because Bitcoin only works correctly with a complete consensus between all users, changing the protocol can be very difficult and requires an overwhelming majority of users to adopt the changes in such a way that remaining users have nearly no choice but to follow. As a general rule, it is hard to imagine why any Bitcoin user would choose to adopt any change that could compromise their own money." quantum: "Is Bitcoin vulnerable to quantum computing?" quantumtxt1: "Yes, most systems relying on cryptography in general are, including traditional banking systems. However, quantum computers don't yet exist and probably won't for a while. In the event that quantum computing could be an imminent threat to Bitcoin, the protocol could be upgraded to use post-quantum algorithms. Given the importance that this update would have, it can be safely expected that it would be highly reviewed by developers and adopted by all Bitcoin users." help: "Help"