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!