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Governments, Big Corps can easily co-ordinate a 51% attack on any proof-of-work networks. If BTC's marketcap is $1T and it'll only take $5B for a 51% attack, t
by zooq_ai 3y ago
Governments, Big Corps can easily co-ordinate a 51% attack on any proof-of-work networks.
If BTC's marketcap is $1T and it'll only take $5B for a 51% attack, there can be some arbitrage opportunity for a large hedge fund determined enough.
The only thing preventing this is the attacker must execute this flawlessly including attacking all the forks that may happen.
- monero-xmr 3y agoThe problem is the government has to acquire the hardware. There isn’t 51% of the hash power in spare mining equipment lying around. It’s all decentralized.
- zooq_ai 3y agoUmmm really?, is that your counter-argument for governments that have Trillions in their budget?
- monero-xmr 3y agoThe US government could spend trillions to surreptitiously manufacture extremely specialized equipment without anyone knowing, turn it on to do a 51% attack, and when it’s over the network will just fork and reverse the transactions. It’s illogical
- nullityrofl 3y agoI think it's fair to say that western cryptologic agencies could likely repurpose hardware, perhaps to a degree unknown in the public space.
- zooq_ai 3y agodelusional to think, the western governments can't attack the forked version too. Also, who decides which transactions to reverse? and why would an entity with 51% power agree to that? No one in crypto has thought through this
- monero-xmr 3y agoYep you’re the first person to ever consider this - tell the world!
- aforwardslash 3y agoYou're assuming you dont have state sponsors heavily invested in it already - and have been for years. Which is actually kind of hilarious, as it also assumes the blockchain is safe from other threat models. I wouldn't be surprised if a significant chunk of bitcoin movements were state sponsored; its the next logical move - first you build a brivate internet, then you build a private currency.
- ramchip 3y agoThere's also a legal risk for private entities, as the conviction of Avraham Eisenberg showed recently, and I think a strong possibility that a successful attack would crash the valuation of BTC and make it impossible to recoup costs.
- jbverschoor 3y agoThat’s not what a 51% attack can do. It doesn’t allow you to “steal” money
- tromp 3y agoIt allows you to double spend, which is pretty much stealing from the first recipient...