Is bitcoin vulnerable?

[Daniel91]

No.

But here is some food for thought.

What if there was a global black out, some how... wouldn't bitcoin be vulnerable to someone with solar powered computer and internet access?- (an engineered global black out just in case you were going to say that there wouldn't be internet access"

It will not work and blackout on a global scale is near impossible. Bitcoin is very safe from any sort of vulnerabilities, there are several ways which bitcoins are vulnerable, if 51% of miners get together and decide to hard fork; or cracking the sha 256 algorithm on whose back bitcoin is build, on which case both are near impossible to do and likely won't happen in the next 100 years.

This really seems like a scenario from a catastrophic movie and personally I do not believe it.
What would be the possible motivation of miners to do something like this?
What would they get by killing their ''golden goose'' which brings income to them?
I really don't see any realistic reason for it.

[jjacob]

Maybe if bitcoin becomes very popular perhaps the elites in power now will stage some type of blackout and send themselves 50% of bitcoin?

You're obviously mistaken about what a 50% attack can do.
Sending 50% of bitcoin to themselves is not what the evildoers could achieve by staging a global blackout.
Double-spending attacks, well, possible, but there would be no targets to launch them at. There'd simply be no one to accept those double-spends.
Receiving 100% of the block rewards for the time of the blackout? Absolutely.
That's somewhat less than 4000 BTC per day of the global blackout.

4000 BTC/day in comparison to the huge negative impact on economy during the global blackout?
Well, no one said powerful elites were smart. But stupid like that?

edit: typos

Can't the government just spend a bunch of money and overtake the Bitcoin mining world with a 51% attack?

Is it really worth the cost/effort?
Bitcoin is not such a big threat.... yet.

[Amph]

Maybe if bitcoin becomes very popular perhaps the elites in power now will stage some type of blackout and send themselves 50% of bitcoin?

You're obviously mistaken about what a 50% attack can do.
Sending 50% of bitcoin to themselves is not what the evildoers could achieve by staging a global blackout.
Double-spending attacks, well, possible, but there would be no targets to launch them at. There'd simply be no one to accept those double-spends.
Receiving 100% of the block rewards for the time of the blackout? Absolutely.
That's somewhat less than 4000 BTC per day of the global blackout.

4000 BTC/day in comparison to the huge negative impact on economy during the global blackout?
Well, no one said powerful elites were smart. But stupid like that?

edit: typos

Can't the government just spend a bunch of money and overtake the Bitcoin mining world with a 51% attack?

it was already said numerous times, the cost of doing this far exceed the cost of doing the exact same thing, but helping the network instead, thus retrieving profit with the usual mining reward system...

[Hazir]

Maybe if bitcoin becomes very popular perhaps the elites in power now will stage some type of blackout and send themselves 50% of bitcoin?

You're obviously mistaken about what a 50% attack can do.
Sending 50% of bitcoin to themselves is not what the evildoers could achieve by staging a global blackout.
Double-spending attacks, well, possible, but there would be no targets to launch them at. There'd simply be no one to accept those double-spends.
Receiving 100% of the block rewards for the time of the blackout? Absolutely.
That's somewhat less than 4000 BTC per day of the global blackout.

4000 BTC/day in comparison to the huge negative impact on economy during the global blackout?
Well, no one said powerful elites were smart. But stupid like that?

edit: typos

Can't the government just spend a bunch of money and overtake the Bitcoin mining world with a 51% attack?

it was already said numerous times, the cost of doing this far exceed the cost of doing the exact same thing, but helping the network instead, thus retrieving profit with the usual mining reward system...

If government want to take over bitcoin; or seriously regulate it, then the best and simplest course of action is to regulate bitcoin mining. The most crucial way is for governments to regulate ASIC manufacturing, for example by forcing manufacturers to add kill switches to the hardware or require end users to have licenses. It would be pretty easy operation, and it can be done without high cost.

[ranochigo]

Maybe if bitcoin becomes very popular perhaps the elites in power now will stage some type of blackout and send themselves 50% of bitcoin?

You're obviously mistaken about what a 50% attack can do.
Sending 50% of bitcoin to themselves is not what the evildoers could achieve by staging a global blackout.
Double-spending attacks, well, possible, but there would be no targets to launch them at. There'd simply be no one to accept those double-spends.
Receiving 100% of the block rewards for the time of the blackout? Absolutely.
That's somewhat less than 4000 BTC per day of the global blackout.

4000 BTC/day in comparison to the huge negative impact on economy during the global blackout?
Well, no one said powerful elites were smart. But stupid like that?

edit: typos

Can't the government just spend a bunch of money and overtake the Bitcoin mining world with a 51% attack?

it was already said numerous times, the cost of doing this far exceed the cost of doing the exact same thing, but helping the network instead, thus retrieving profit with the usual mining reward system...

If government want to take over bitcoin; or seriously regulate it, then the best and simplest course of action is to regulate bitcoin mining. The most crucial way is for governments to regulate ASIC manufacturing, for example by forcing manufacturers to add kill switches to the hardware or require end users to have licenses. It would be pretty easy operation, and it can be done without high cost.

I fail to see how regulation of ASICs can be done effectively and affect Bitcoin. It isn't easy at all. Reducing the hashrate doesn't affect much. There are still many other companies all around the world. It will never be possible for every miner to own a license. The fact that you can mine while connected to tor makes it even harder. A simple firmware mod can easily bypass the "kill switch" you said. Furthermore, to regulate mining, you are going to have to regulate the computer industry as a whole too. Don't forget CPU and GPU can also mine.

[ammy009]

No, bitcoin is not vulnerable ,but, some associates are vulnerable & they have to fix immediately !

[Agestorzrxx]

I think bitcoin is very robust as it is decentralize.
It's can't be killed by anyone.

[ammy009]

I think bitcoin is very robust as it is decentralize.
It's can't be killed by anyone.

YES ! It's can't be killed by anyone. it's the beauty of bitcoin