<p>'Longer' means 'more total work spent'. You're not going to be working harder than all miners put together are you? Then the only way to get some money is to join the existing miners and work <em>with</em> them. And by doing that you coincidentally enlarge the group of 'honest' miners, making it that much harder for someone else to consider your  'evil' plan.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-01-19T10:09:26.087Z
Also, the secluded chain wouldn't include any of the [checkpoints](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/1797/5406), so even if it at some point had a larger total Proof of Work, it would be ignored by the rest of the network.
Murch
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-07T18:20:18.383Z
2014-08-07T18:20:18.383Z
Jannes
<p>I have a scenario. Let's say I start my own Bitcoin mining on a secluded network. I leave this to mine for many years or even pass it down to future generations.</p>

<p>To the very point that my chain is longer than the worlds current chain. Then I connect to the network. What would the result be? Would I instantly own every coin mined?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-08T16:05:04.240Z
Only if you had over 50% of the power. (protip: you didn't)
Tim S.
<mining-theory><majority-attack><chain-reorganization>
Would it be possible to overtake the network by running a secluded mining operation for many years?
Matosha
# Would it be possible to overtake the network by running a secluded mining operation for many years?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-08-07)

I have a scenario. Let's say I start my own Bitcoin mining on a secluded network. I leave this to mine for many years or even pass it down to future generations.

To the very point that my chain is longer than the worlds current chain. Then I connect to the network. What would the result be? Would I instantly own every coin mined?

**Tags:** mining-theory, majority-attack, chain-reorganization

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Only if you had over 50% of the power. (protip: you didn't)  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-08-07. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

'Longer' means 'more total work spent'. You're not going to be working harder than all miners put together are you? Then the only way to get some money is to join the existing miners and work *with* them. And by doing that you coincidentally enlarge the group of 'honest' miners, making it that much harder for someone else to consider your 'evil' plan.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Also, the secluded chain wouldn't include any of the [checkpoints](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/1797/5406), so even if it at some point had a larger total Proof of Work, it would be ignored by the rest of the network.  

---

