[citation needed] The possibility of a 51% attack was feared due to the popularity of GHash.io's mining pool.

[2] In July 2014, the GHash.io mining pool briefly exceeded the 51% threshold, which forced the bitcoin community to discuss the possibility of finding a common solution to this threat.

[7] Moreover, GHash.io representatives asked other mining pools to follow their example for the sake of the entire bitcoin community.

This committee would include representatives of the mining pools, bitcoin businesses and other specialists in the field.

The 51% discussion received broad coverage in the media, beyond publications which commonly focus on cryptocurrency news[8] ArsTechnica,[9] Bloomberg View,[10] Vice Motherboard, International Business Times.