[reddytowns]

This is interesting stuff, but it's still a stop gap. As you say, large solo miners are an ongoing concern.

If bitcoin ever makes it big, IMO, it'll be large corporations running mining operations. Just as the general population does most of its services through huge corporations, mining bitcoin will probably be done by them as well.

What do you think of Proof of Stake systems? Are they feasible? I'm working on one, btw, with a shared spending pool and an ability to vote to spend the pool, and to change the code of the official client, thereby changing the rules of the system.