Editor's note: This article was first published on Cryptobellum last year. It's published below in its entirety. Since it was originally published, Electroneum implemented infrastructure changes, including selecting NGOs to run the network and introducing a moderated layer. Scott Stornetta, widely known as a founding father of blockchain and referenced by Satoshi Nakamoto in the Bitcoin whitepaper, has had favorable things to say in recent months about the direction Electroneum has taken.
The start of the organized labor movement in the United States has roots in the late 1800s in the Anthracite region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. A group of Irish coal miners formed a secret society because they were angered by unsafe and exploitive working conditions to which they were exposed regularly. The secret society known as the Molly Maguires had been accused of violence and murder of mine supervisors.
In a digital age, what is the modern-day equivalent of labor advocacy that a cryptocurrency miner can engage in? Blockchain collusion, it appears, except there aren’t any unfavorable work conditions cryptocurrency miners experience. I guess miners could argue that their workplace is too hot, if they stored their ASIC miners on the second floor of their home, in a small room and sat next to them all day long. The underlying motivation in blockchain manipulation is purely greed, and they’re engaging in collusion simply because they can get away with it without fear of any consequences.
In recent months, Electroneum miners colluded to only mine at certain times and worked together to split profits. After dominating the blockchain, they stopped mining, and the algorithm wasn’t able to scale down fast enough after the miners’ rapid disappearance.
As a result of this mining manipulation, ETN has discarded plans to be CPU and GPU-friendly and has welcomed back ASIC miners. Banks are leaving Great Britain because of the uncertainty of what Brexit entails. With an exodus of banks, ETN has a golden opportunity to fill the void with their instant payment system, in which they are effectively acting as a “bank” between countless customers and vendors using their instant payment portal.
