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by ProblemFactory 4491 days ago
But the protocol can be changed.

If the most common bitcoin clients are updated to allow this "bonus", and at least 51% of the network installs this update, their blockchain will become the authoritative one. Older or other clients will have to accept it if they still want to participate in the chain.
1 comments
VMG 4491 days ago
The authoritative blockchain only determines the order of valid transactions, not which transactions are valid.

A transaction that conjures Bitcoin out of nothing is certainly invalid. Patio11 got this wrong.

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ProblemFactory 4491 days ago
The validity of transactions is checked by the individual bitcoin clients. After all, something, somewhere must check if they are valid according to the protocol rules! And this client code can be changed to anything at all, as long as most miners agree to update to it.

Transactions that make up bitcoin out of nothing are already used as rewards for mining a block.

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VMG 4491 days ago
Individual clients don't have to use the same client that miners use.

If 51% of miners start using an inflationary version of Bitcoin "Bitcoin-QE", but the clients (exchanges, merchants, wallet providers, etc) don't approve, they won't update the client and use the partition of the network that is secured by the remaining 49% of miners. People wouldn't want to accept the Bitcoin-QE mined on the inflationary branch and the investment wouldn't pay off.

Of course Bitcoin-QE miners could start an attack on Bitcoin in other ways, but that also woudn't be necessarily economical.

It's very hard to tell what 51% will do, but it is clear that you don't have full control of the currency.

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