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Presumably the new bitcoin ETFs allow shorting? Taking a big short position before crashing the value sounds like a plausible attack.

• incrudible 3y ago
  Shorting Bitcoin has been possible for a decade now. The capex to pull off the would be in the billions though, and the value of that investment is tied directly to the price of Bitcoin. That said, the attack you describe has happened for much smaller cryptos. I'm not saying it can't happen, I'm saying there's no reason to assume it would be a huge threat to Bitcoin, because the actual risk for a user is vanishingly small. There are much bigger threats to Bitcoin's valuation that are far more plausible, such as government crackdowns.
  • edgyquant 3y ago
    The question, and this thread, was entirely about if it this is enough compute to do it. Not if it was, in your opinion, a threat worth worrying about.
    • incrudible 3y ago
      Dear thread police, the person I responded implied that Elon could make, in their words, the crypto world burn. That was my point of contention.