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To finish the quote that you truncated... > The idea of a single entity holding 51% of all of a circulating currency is completely at odds with the notion of a
by 3PS 5y ago
To finish the quote that you truncated...
> The idea of a single entity holding 51% of all of a circulating currency is completely at odds with the notion of a currency being "embedded enough in the economy" that people won't just dump the currency immediately and crash its exchange rate.
Certainly, 51% attacks are very viable against nascent or unpopular cryptocurrencies. This includes Bitcoin in 2014. But the author was specifically suggesting that a 51% attack could be carried out against a cryptocurrency that is firmly entrenched in the global economy. I find this very implausible.
- NicoJuicy 5y agoConclusion: it's not viable for the 2-3 largest ones and we'll ignore that China had 65% of mining capacity before the ban.
- twelve40 5y agoThe author's argument is a bit more subtle, where they are saying that for the sake of speeding up transactions it may be possible that newer algorithms enable less than 51% collude for a successful scam.