GHash.io

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GHash.io
Industry
  • Bitcoin mining pool
FoundedJuly 2013
Headquarters
Netherlands Edit this on Wikidata
Area served
Worldwide
Websiteghash.io Edit this on Wikidata

GHash.io was a bitcoin mining pool subsidiary of CEX.io that operated from 2013-2016. The pool gained notoriety for briefly controlling more than 51% of bitcoin's computing power in 2014 (notable in that bitcoin was supposedly outside any party's control).[1]

History

GHash.io was founded and owned by CEX.io, a

Darkcoin. Altcoin mining options were available for independent miners, while bitcoin mining could also be done in the cloud by purchasing cloud-based mining power on CEX.io.[citation needed
]

Traders on CEX.io could buy shares of GHash.io mining hardware to operate on the GHash.io mining pool. After GHash.io closed in 2016, CEX.io continued operating as a bitcoin exchange.[citation needed]

51% attack controversy

The possibility of a

51% attack was feared due to the popularity of GHash.io's mining pool. This kind of attack occurs when a single miner or mining pool is able to mine multiple bitcoin block rewards in a row. This would be a problem for the bitcoin network, because it hypothetically allows the mining pool to double-spend (counterfeit) bitcoins.[2] In July 2014, the GHash.io mining pool briefly exceeded the 51% threshold, which forced the bitcoin community to discuss the possibility of finding a common solution to this threat.[3][4] The pool developing the majority caused a prominent bitcoin developer Peter Todd to sell half of his holdings.[5] The news reportedly caused bitcoin's price to drop from $633 to $600 at the time.[6]

Since no long-term solution to the 51% problem is known, the participants agreed to implement some temporary measures. GHash.io released a voluntary statement promising that it would not exceed 40% of the overall bitcoin hashrate.[7] Moreover, GHash.io representatives asked other mining pools to follow their example for the sake of the entire bitcoin community.[8] It also stated that a new committee should be created to act as a watchdog against the 51% problem. This committee would include representatives of the mining pools, bitcoin businesses and other specialists in the field.

The 51% discussion received broad coverage in the media, beyond publications which commonly focus on cryptocurrency news

Vice Motherboard, International Business Times.[11]

In March 2015, GHash.io was struck by a crippling

DDOS attack, possibly in response to the group breaching 51%.[12] By the end of 2015, GHash.io had stopped its mining activity in response to falling bitcoin prices.[13][14]

References

  1. ^ Joshua Brustein (17 June 2014). "Is One Bitcoin Miner Controlling the Entire System?". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg.
  2. ^ Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna (16 June 2014). "BitBeat: Mining Pool Rejects Short-Term Fixes To Avert "51% Attack"". WSJ Blogs.
  3. ^ L.S. (20 January 2015). "How bitcoin mining works". The Economist.
  4. ^ Alex Hern (16 June 2014). "Bitcoin currency could have been destroyed by '51%' attack". The Guardian.
  5. ^ David Canellis (26 April 2019). "One mining pool controls a dangerously dominant share of BitcoinSV's hash rate". The Next Web.
  6. ^ Tim Hornyak (16 June 2014). "One group controls 51 percent of Bitcoin mining, threatening security sanctity". IDG PC World.
  7. ^ Kevin Kelleher (23 December 2014). "The gold rush days of bitcoin mining are over, and not because of the price". Quartz.
  8. ^ a b Alex Wilhelm (16 July 2014). "Popular Bitcoin Mining Pool Promises To Restrict Its Compute Power To Prevent Feared '51%' Fiasco". Techcrunch.
  9. ArsTechnica
    . 2014-07-16. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
  10. ^ Bershidsky Leonid (17 July 2014). "Trust Will Kill Bitcoin". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg View.
  11. ^ Anthony Cuthbertson (17 July 2014). "Cryptocurrency News Round-Up: App Teaches Bitcoin to Children & GHash Commits to 40% Hashrate". International Business Times.
  12. ^ Quentson, Andrew (June 15, 2014). "Bitcoin Mining Pool Ghash.io DDos-ed in Response to threat of 51% attack?". CCN. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  13. ^ Madore. "Ghash / CEX Scaling Back Mining Pool". CCN. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  14. ^ Rob Price (13 August 2015). "The 21 companies that control bitcoin". Business Insider.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=GHash.io&oldid=1211182890"