Years ago, GHash.io had claim of 40% of the network hashpower. They were close to 51%, where they would have the power to initiate a 51% attack. Now it has 0.2%. How did this happen?
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Apparently they were hit with a massive denial of service attack in response to their growing hash rate. That combined with a subsequent drop in the price lead them to stop their cloud mining operation and focus on their exchange (cex.io).
The other non cloud-miners who left the pool most likely did it in response to the massive appeal from the community to find another pool.
lastcanal
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I am not fully satisfied with this answer. Seems to me that only ghash.io insiders/staff can provide more info. Anyway, there are no more good answers. Take a +300 bounty! – amaclin Feb 15 '17 at 08:15
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In general, miners will quit a pool when it gets too close to 50%, because they know they could cause the network a lot of trouble if a 51% attack was ever pulled off.
Not sure of the specifics in this case, but in general that's the built-in safety mechanism.
Digital Galaxy
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I knew that, if we suppose that 20% of the miners quit, what happened to 30%? – MCCCS Sep 03 '16 at 19:55
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1Some people leave, then others decide to leave, then even more start to leave. It's a lemming train, in this case. – Whyte the Weeabear Sep 05 '16 at 23:19