rolling back a transaction and claiming it yourself is a kind of stealing
more advanced ways of stealing bitcoins have been developed and successfully simulated, for instance the dominant cartel can actually go several blocks ahead of everyone else but not advertise them, and then only roll back other people's finds when those people advertise them.
For instance the cartel using superior cpu power actually solves 2 blocks ahead of everyone else but does not tell the other nodes that it has solved it. It waits until someone else advertises that they have solved the block and then releases their own and rolls back the other person's.
There are many optimizations that can be made to improve this exploit. The exploit completely ruins any hope for bitcoins being an unmanipulated currency.
Even in the base case scenario where multiple cartels compete to dominate the bitcoins, the average person will be squeezed out and all the advantage will go to the cartels. It will end up WORSE than other currencies based on the credibility of the various governments.
The bitcoin concept is inherently flawed because cpu power is not democratic. Especially when it comes to the implementation details of bitcoins, which are actually very inefficiently computed on a regular person's computer. Purpose-built bitcoin computers are orders of magnitude more effective than normal computers, compounding the other issues with bitcoins.
The fact that most people's CPU cycles are migrating toward mobile battery powered devices does not help either. How many people do you know who still have bulky desktop computers plugged into the network 24/7 rather than mobile battery powered devices that spend more time offline than online?
more advanced ways of stealing bitcoins have been developed and successfully simulated, for instance the dominant cartel can actually go several blocks ahead of everyone else but not advertise them, and then only roll back other people's finds when those people advertise them.
For instance the cartel using superior cpu power actually solves 2 blocks ahead of everyone else but does not tell the other nodes that it has solved it. It waits until someone else advertises that they have solved the block and then releases their own and rolls back the other person's.
There are many optimizations that can be made to improve this exploit. The exploit completely ruins any hope for bitcoins being an unmanipulated currency.
Even in the base case scenario where multiple cartels compete to dominate the bitcoins, the average person will be squeezed out and all the advantage will go to the cartels. It will end up WORSE than other currencies based on the credibility of the various governments.
The bitcoin concept is inherently flawed because cpu power is not democratic. Especially when it comes to the implementation details of bitcoins, which are actually very inefficiently computed on a regular person's computer. Purpose-built bitcoin computers are orders of magnitude more effective than normal computers, compounding the other issues with bitcoins.
The fact that most people's CPU cycles are migrating toward mobile battery powered devices does not help either. How many people do you know who still have bulky desktop computers plugged into the network 24/7 rather than mobile battery powered devices that spend more time offline than online?