The 51% Attack – What Bitcoin Can Learn From Alt-coin Experiments

Considering a bitcoin mining hardware purchase? Make a more informed decision with our Bitcoin Mining Dashboard. Starting late in the day on June 8th, and then again on June 10th, Feathercoin succumbed to 51% attacks. While this does not directly affect bitcoin, there are several lessons that the bitcoin community can learn from this experience. There is a case to be made that alt-coins have a diversification advantage, as silver does to gold, but they also provide an interesting testing ground for both new technologies and human behavior. Feathercoin is part of a group of crypto-currencies commonly called alt-coins. These currencies …