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Block time being so long that difficulty couldn't be adjusted down.

Nonsense. That can't happen. The lowest difficulty is easily calculateable on a normal computer. Even on a really shitty really old computer.

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They mean that too much hashrate goes offline at an unfortunate time. Difficulty adjustments only happen every 2016 blocks so if you're the last surviving miner after a mass exodus early in the new difficulty period, good luck mining all remaining blocks yourself. Also, there is a limit how much difficulty can adjust in a single period iirc.

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Yep, there's a given factor that the difficulty can be adjusted by per time.

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The only one or one among a few, no need to be just one. :-)

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Yes, it was just an extreme example to make it clear. You're right.

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While this is ultimately a self regulating issue, i would be surprised if I never see an insanely long mining epoch (several months or more) in my life

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Me too. It's the only thing that, if it happened, would make me say that Bitcoin was failing, not failed, since It could always recover, if more mining power was added...

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