4 ms·

You know what that means? Somebody is going to get 50% of total hash rate and cause untold mayhem and catastrophic loss of trust in Bitcoin.

onion2k 5y ago
To do that you'd need to spend a significant amount of money on mining hardware, and then use it to make your investment lose its value. That would be a very odd strategy. What would the goal be?
- taylorfinley 5y ago
  Discover breakthrough in ASIC design strategy. Produce enough mining rigs for the attack but don't bring them online. Buy massive shorts on bitcoin futures. Bring all your rigs online at once, 51% attack, confidence and price plummet, make huge profit on the shorts, use profit to buy highly discounted bitcoins, things settle down, market recovers, sell your next-gen mining rigs to all the other miners, use your huge profits to fund R&D into the next breakthrough, wash, rinse, repeat.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - noxer 5y ago
    Such a large attack would likely be the end of BTC so the strategy better would bet on it not coming back a better stagey would be to sell the hardware but make sure most of the units sold operate in a pool you control you can have multiple pools to make it not obvious. then attack with the pools so the lose in hardware value is not yours.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- betterunix2 5y ago
  ...maybe you have a large short position in Bitcoin futures...
- torcete 5y ago
  I can imagine that the USA government would do anything to protect the dollar. I wonder how much money the mining hardware would cost in order to perform a successful 51% attack. Would it be less than a carrier? Less than a submarine? More than an F-35?
  - torcete 5y ago
    Ok, so I will answer my self. I found this link with the estimated costs for several cryptocurrencies: https://braiins.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-51-attack-bitcoin https://braiins.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-51-attack... It is given in dollars per hour. Compared to the cost of flying a F-35, a 51% attack would be like flying 20 F35s at the same time. Nothing too expensive for the military budget. It is just a squadron. EDIT: The updated cost is here: https://www.crypto51.app/ https://www.crypto51.app/ With the new hashrate, that would be only 16 F-35s
  - imtringued 5y ago
    The only thing that can protect the dollar is a healthy domestic economy and Biden is doing his best to make that happen.
prox 5y ago
Let’s hope so. It’s a house of cards by nature.

onion2k 5y ago

To do that you'd need to spend a significant amount of money on mining hardware, and then use it to make your investment lose its value. That would be a very odd strategy. What would the goal be?

taylorfinley 5y ago
Discover breakthrough in ASIC design strategy. Produce enough mining rigs for the attack but don't bring them online. Buy massive shorts on bitcoin futures. Bring all your rigs online at once, 51% attack, confidence and price plummet, make huge profit on the shorts, use profit to buy highly discounted bitcoins, things settle down, market recovers, sell your next-gen mining rigs to all the other miners, use your huge profits to fund R&D into the next breakthrough, wash, rinse, repeat.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- noxer 5y ago
  Such a large attack would likely be the end of BTC so the strategy better would bet on it not coming back a better stagey would be to sell the hardware but make sure most of the units sold operate in a pool you control you can have multiple pools to make it not obvious. then attack with the pools so the lose in hardware value is not yours.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
betterunix2 5y ago
...maybe you have a large short position in Bitcoin futures...
torcete 5y ago
I can imagine that the USA government would do anything to protect the dollar. I wonder how much money the mining hardware would cost in order to perform a successful 51% attack. Would it be less than a carrier? Less than a submarine? More than an F-35?
- torcete 5y ago
  Ok, so I will answer my self. I found this link with the estimated costs for several cryptocurrencies: https://braiins.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-51-attack-bitcoin https://braiins.com/blog/how-much-would-it-cost-to-51-attack... It is given in dollars per hour. Compared to the cost of flying a F-35, a 51% attack would be like flying 20 F35s at the same time. Nothing too expensive for the military budget. It is just a squadron. EDIT: The updated cost is here: https://www.crypto51.app/ https://www.crypto51.app/ With the new hashrate, that would be only 16 F-35s
- imtringued 5y ago
  The only thing that can protect the dollar is a healthy domestic economy and Biden is doing his best to make that happen.

prox 5y ago

Let’s hope so. It’s a house of cards by nature.