Re: Ethereum could afford a 51% attack on Bitcoin, and profit greatly from it
There's no point dragging the discussion into the technical details of crypto when all cyphers can be broken with a Rubber Hose / $5 Wrench attack. Russia, China and the US have nuclear weapons and tens of thousands of personnel who can force people to do things, and economic control over millions more.
The only thing stopping a 51% attack on Bitcoin now and always, is... the US government.
The only thing stopping a 51% attack on Bitcoin now and always, is... the US government.
So the US government was protecting Bitcoin from a 51% attack in 2012 and 2013 when Karpeles was running the biggest exchange in the world... That's an interesting theory
Nope. Nobody, including the US government, cared about Bitcoin back then.
But if somebody tried it now, they would get in trouble with the US government (unless, again, it was the US government).
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If China could do something about bitcoin and knew it was protected by the US, why didn't they? Why would they instead ban exchanges when Bitcoin was cheap and vulnerable to an attack by a rich and powerful country?
I am not sure what you are trying to say here.