That makes sense, thanks 1bitc0inplz, very interesting

I guess there are a few reasons someone with a few million dollars to burn might want to do this.

1. They have a vested interest in conventional currency. Think Mises.org conspiracy theories about international bankers who would see bitcoin as a threat to their economic domination.

2. A government decides bitcoin is illegal (esp because people aren't paying taxes!) and chooses this form of technological force to shut it down since conventional force is not sufficient to enforce the law in this case.

3. A malicious and bored millionaire just wants to do it for fun, to see if he or she can.

4. Someone thinks they could make a profit by sucking up all the bitcoins. Considering that people of limited resources are currently investing thousands of dollars in bitcoin speculation, maybe some angel investor with a billion dollars thinks this is a fun way to diversify his portfolio for a few millions.

5. A bored Saudi prince decides this is more fun than buying another private jet.

It would be interesting to see if someone could compromise the currency while still maintaining public confidence in it. That could be very profitable.

It seems to me that a currency which can be compromised by only a few million is on a precarious basis. How can the public really have confidence in a currency that may, unknowingly, be completely compromised by powerful established interests? I mean who is to say that the NSA has not already drawn up a project to cripple bitcoin? ~$2million to the NSA is utterly nothing. And, if we're being honest, they already have the hardware hooked into the net to do it. So it would likely be more of an opportunity cost issue rather than buying up the hardware.