Let's say a person drops a few million bucks and now has 51% of the network hashing power, and he wants to run the 51% attack we hear so much about. What does he do?
I object to the idea that a "few million bucks" would place a person in control of mining capacity large enough to be 51% of the network.
Between video cards, computer hardware, networking equipment, furniture (server racks, etc.), cooling, OFFICE SPACE, labor, advertising to get that much labor, electricity, etc. it would have to be quite a chunk of change. A few million probably wouldn't do it.
Just take one of the items, "labor" for example -- we're not talking the kind of labor you can pick up outside Home Depot
PC techs make more than minimum wage, and the guy who can design and manage something of that scale (layout, cooling, connectivity, Linux expertise, etc.) is certainly going to make more than $10/hour.That's my point -- the Bitcoin network is HUGE at this point, and to get 51% would take an operation of insane magnitude.
Besides, when NewEgg and everyone else is all the sudden "sold out" of 6XXX series cards, many Bitcoin advocates and miners would know something is up
