How difficult (expensive, realistic, etc) would it be for the US gubmint to buy up enough mining power to hijack the network, change the rules, and send it all to zero?
An S19 Pro costs about $8k and has a hash rate of 110 TH/s. For a 51% attack, at least 200 million TH/s is needed, so about 1.8 million S19s, with a cost of about $15 billion. There is also the cost of the supporting infrastructure, labor and electricity.
As far as your concern about changing the rules -- it is not possible. Changing the rules would simply cause a fork, like BCH, BSV, and BTG, that can be ignored.
The most likely attack would be a denial of service. The government would prevent other miners from adding blocks to the chain and publish empty blocks for as long as needed in order to kill the network. In the end it would be expensive, but it is probably doable if there is sufficient political will behind it.
Considering that $15B then i could say that it is really that doable if they are really that serious on taking Bitcoin down but it seems no one or they arent getting that support on doing so in speaking on giving out
a network attack and minding off on how the hell they would really be spending out on something which it cant even assure if it would totally kill down the network or just giving out some temporal effects
but not totally a reason on making it dead? For sure there wont even how filthy rich are those people who do tend to support such agenda but well we dont know on whats coming though.
I think IF they did it, it would be a massive secret / cover up. I mean, the plan was in place for the US military to shoot down a plane full of Americans over Cuba and blame it Russia. The CDC administered syphilis to African Americans and told them it was a vaccine. Lots of people can't be convinced we landed on the moon. I guess one of my "unknowns" was - IF the network could be rendered worthless, COULD the culprit be anonymous?
BTC was invented partly to escape the control of the US government, which is presumably why lots of people who love power, hate BTC.
Been a HODLer since 2013. Still buying every single day. Haven't sold a singe sat. Admittedly, next bull run I'm gonna leverage my BTC or scrape some profits. Nothing makes me happier than dangling it in my friends faces who have been screaming "SELL THAT SHIT WHILE YOU CAN" for 9 years. Now that it might actually threaten the USD, I'm gonna ask what I hope is a stupid question.
How difficult (expensive, realistic, etc) would it be for the US gubmint to buy up enough mining power to hijack the network, change the rules, and send it all to zero?
Admittedly I don't know much about the technical side. I buy it because I saw / see the value from a financial perspective. I understand the basics, but when you'll start talmbout hash rates, I get lost like a goose in tall weeds.
Once someone can explain to me why it should cost the same amount of money to wire funds between 2 banks next door to each other, as it does to mail a fckn brick from Miami to Maine, I might weaken my bullish outlook on BTC. Not to mention they don't process transactions on weekends? Why? Because the ladies poking the keyboards are "off"? Okay Flintstones...... Until then, I'm still a buyer baby.
And please, ELI5
You seem to be trapped in a bubble, especially looking at America only. The banks in America are charging ridiculous fees to their customers and many of these don't exist in places like Europe. Bitcoin will always be competing with the fees charged to businesses by payment networks like Visa and Mastercard, that's what you should be focusing on and they are in the range of 1-3.5%. In hindsight it seems rather foolish to supposedly having held your Bitcoin all this time - if you had sold a chunk near the peak, or even as it slowly dropped down, you'd be able to buy in more as it continued to drop. but admittedly that gets into trading territory that some people avoid.
I guess I need to start writing with TONS more details. GEEEZ. I'm not "focused" on anything. I realize the world is a big place. I see the value in the ease of currency movement with BTC. I study economics for fun. I have a degree in finance and a minor in economics. I read The Wealth of Nations once a year for fun. The only reason I mentioned the American government is because BTC threatens the USD, which is the de-facto global currency. The USA would be the most motivated and most capable of deploying capital to end it IF IT WERE PLAUSIBLE. In hindsight we all make mistakes dude. If you actually read my post you'd see that my future plans may include a different plan than the past. Its a shame that some come here to exchange ideas and others treat it like the Twitter cesspool. Thanks to the people who actually engage in a meaningful way!
I never thought I'd be lectured. LOL Everyone who came to shame me for bragging...It went like this:
2013 - Hey close friends, I bought this stuff called bitcoin. Paid like $500 a piece for them. We'll see how it goes!
2104 - 2017 - Them "ya still got your Dungeons and Dragons money? How's that workin out for ya?"
Me - fine. It'll either go to the moon or zero. I'm fine with either. You should buy some too!
Dec 2017 - Them: DUUUDE SELL IT NOWWWWW!!
Me - Nah, I'm good.
Dec 2018 - We told you to sell it dumb ass. Now look.
Me - I'm still up (shrugs) Actually I'm buying more, I can show you how.
2021 - THEM - DUUUDE SELL IT NOWWWWW!!
Me - ALL YALL CAN SUCK IT!!!! JUST WAIT! WE'VE BEEN THROUGH THIS OVER AND OVER AGAIN BOYS!
Them now: Hey man, is it too late to buy some of that bitcoin?
Me: Dangles it in their face (the past, not my actual BTC balance)
Are we all clear now? Can we stop acting like this is Twitter? THANK YOU!
[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]