[inoop]

> The higher the hashrate, the more secure the bitcoin network.

wat

edit: clarification, the total hash rate has zero bearing on the overall security. The question is about how hard it is to gain majority, in other words, how that hashing power is distributed.

At the time of writing, the two largest pools have 50% of the hashing power: https://blockchain.info/pools. If they decide to work together and perhaps DDOS a smaller third pool, they can have 51% pretty easily.

Inb4 'they wouldn't do that', the largest pool (ghash.io) is known to have attempted double spends before. Besides, surely one wouldn't argue that Bitcoin's security is a matter of confidence in a few pool operators being friendly?