Let's say at some point anybody succeded purchasing 51% of the total circulating Lisk, how you prevent that person to vote his own 101 "friends" and therefore take control over Lisk making it centralized ?
He wouldn't need to purchase 51%, it could be done with
a lot less. On top of that, it would have a self-reinforcing quality to it in that the more Lisk he gains from the node, the more Lisk can be put into voting for himself the next time. In a "perfect storm" scenario, where voter numbers, potential delegates and the price of Lisk intersect in the right way, a small group of people could have an overwhelming influence on the vote outcome.
This wouldn't necessarily be such a problem if every Lisk holder participated in the vote, but we know this won't happen and the vote will be decided by a very small demographic of Lisk holders, as happens in practically every other voting system.
Bitcoin is having problems with cabals and centralisation as I write this and it would be naive to think that Lisk couldn't have similar problems in the future, especially once the market cap hits a respectable figure and temptation proves too much - someone will try something.
It can already be seen here - the temptation is proving too much after some "out of the ass" figures have been bandied about. I would be concerned about some (
by no means all) of the prospective delegates motives - they've shown no interest in Lisk until now and I doubt their intentions of securing the network over profit - at the first disappointment they and their nodes will be gone.
I write this based on my understanding of how Lisk will work. I may have missed something or just be plain wrong.... I'm open to education.
Here's a link regarding Bitshares which is using the same system. It explains my thoughts more clearly and also describes an interesting potential DDoS attack on delegates.
http://tpbit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/thoughts-on-delegated-proof-of-stake.htmlI agree that this is, at the moment, largely theoretical, but I see no harm in discussing it now.
