Why A Government 51% Attack Won't Work (Bitcoin)

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In this video, I discuss why a nation-state 51% attack on Bitcoin would fail.

In order to launch a 51% attack, an attacker needs to buy, build, or steal a huge number of Bitcoin mining rigs (ASICs). There is no way to do this (in the age of social media and phone cameras) without Bitcoiners finding out and having advance notice that an attack is coming. One small change to Bitcoin Core could immediately brick these machines, and full nodes would be fully incentivized to run this software update.

If the government chooses to try to buy a lot of ASICs, the large companies that manufacture them and their sales middlemen will begin to notice, and will spread the word.

ASIC manufacturers are incentivized not to let a government try to destroy Bitcoin, since their whole business model depends on making ASICs which can only be used for one thing-- which is mining Bitcoin.

Further, a 51% attack CANNOT:

1) Create fake Bitcoin or increase the max supply of 21 million
2) Steal your Bitcoin
3) Change the consensus rules
4) Force any node to accept a block or transaction that violates the consensus rules

All that a 51% attack could do is to censor some transactions, attempt a double-spend, or even produce a series of empty blocks (effectively a denial of service attack, since no one would be able to transact on the network until the attack subsided).

As soon as the attack stops, everything goes back to normal with Bitcoin. That would be a great ad for Bitcoin:

"Nation-state attacker spends 10s of billions of USD and still fails to stop Bitcoin."

Not investment advice! Consult a financial advisor.

It's impossible to attack Bitcoin using standard cloud computing equipment:
https://bitcoinminingcouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022.10.13-BMC-Presentation-Q3-22-Presentation.pdf

SHA-256 hash algo:
https://emn178.github.io/online-tools/sha256.html

Whinstone Bitcoin mining:
https://www.riotplatforms.com/bitcoin-mining/whinstone-u-s

Healthcare.gov plagued by crashes on 1st day:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/healthcaregov-plagued-by-crashes-on-1st-day/

Legacy Weapons Are Eroding the Military’s Edge:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-07/legacy-weapons-are-eroding-the-u-s-military-s-edge

Bitcoin SV rocked by three 51% attacks in as many months:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-sv-rocked-by-three-51-attacks-in-as-many-months

BSV Suffers 51% Attack:
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/08/04/bsv-suffers-51-attack-report/

I am not being paid or otherwise compensated by any company or cryptocurrency project that I mention in my videos.

My opinion is not for sale. Please do not contact me with any affiliate or advertising deals.

#bitcoin
#bitcoinmining

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