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> If a major government wanted to break crypto, it would simply credibly threaten to launch a 51% attack. Do you know how hard it's now to buy/produce graphic
by mateuszf 6y ago
> If a major government wanted to break crypto, it would simply credibly threaten to launch a 51% attack.
Do you know how hard it's now to buy/produce graphic cards and asic-s good for mining crypto? The demand is very big yet producers can't scale up. I don't see governments to have possibility obtaining so much hardware in a short/medium time horizon.
- simiones 6y agoWhy do you think the government would have to produce new ASICs, when they could just buy or seize the existing ones?
- WanderPanda 6y agoThat would take out the "most developed countries" part...
- mateuszf 6y ago> Why do you think the government would have to produce new ASICs, when they could just buy or seize the existing ones? There is not enough of them to buy on the market to make 51% attack. Of course seizing is possible but hard because I imagine it would be quite hard to locate them, apart form large mining operations they are quite distributed. In case of bitcoin network it would have to be a large multicountry operation. Because the miners are really distributed around the world.
- ericmay 6y agoThey could just subpoena websites and retailers that sold them previously and start there.
- another_sock 6y agoYou are vastly overestimating the competency of bureaucrats and their minions. The people sitting at the top of current power structures are ghosts of the past, mimics pretending to have influence and having to resort to implicit coercion instead of explicit coercion to get what they want. Crypto is inevitable and will undermine the legacy financial system eventually, whatever name or symbol crypto has is irrelevant to the underlying mechanics at play.