re: Bitcoin faces biggest threat yet: a miner takeover

Why will people want to verify transactions unless their is reward for doing so? It there is reward, then the most efficient miners will get the most rewards. How do you disassociate economies of scale from efficiency in mining operations? The competition will change from the entire block to Merkle tree chains, but there will still be competition.

BTW, my father used to work with Merkle's father at what is now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. They were physicists who spent the majority of their careers working on classified projects. They were typical of the scientists that government has working for it. The government has similarly qualified people working on cryptologic projects who are among the best in the field.