There is extensive discussion on the bitcoin forums about these attack vectors and others.
One thing I find interesting is how the p2p trust setup starts to model "reality" or psychology. The question "How do I know whats real?" has an overlap with the million-evil-peer scenario you described. If ten of your friends told you a bus was on fire in the next neighborhood, would you believe them? My point is the attack you're describing is so general that its beyond trying to fix with a particular p2p setup and we have to go with whats 'good enough'.
Thats the basis of the bitcoin system and probably many others. It asks "is this transaction real?" and its real if "most people say its real".
Whats even more interesting is that hard crypto enforces a very small number of properties of the bitcoin system. The hash rate difficulty control, the number of coins awarded for "mining", and others aspects are controlled by, as you have described, the majority installed base. Like a game of Othello or Reversi, majority rules.
One thing I find interesting is how the p2p trust setup starts to model "reality" or psychology. The question "How do I know whats real?" has an overlap with the million-evil-peer scenario you described. If ten of your friends told you a bus was on fire in the next neighborhood, would you believe them? My point is the attack you're describing is so general that its beyond trying to fix with a particular p2p setup and we have to go with whats 'good enough'.
Thats the basis of the bitcoin system and probably many others. It asks "is this transaction real?" and its real if "most people say its real".
Whats even more interesting is that hard crypto enforces a very small number of properties of the bitcoin system. The hash rate difficulty control, the number of coins awarded for "mining", and others aspects are controlled by, as you have described, the majority installed base. Like a game of Othello or Reversi, majority rules.