The future of Bitcoins

[bce]

You're so cute, how you all worry about 51% attacks and incredibly complex setups to achieve such an attack.

Wanna kill bitcoin? Here's how you kill bitcoin.

Wait for bitcoin conference, wait till all the movers and shakers are there, blow up the building, then claim it was a meeting of terrorists building doom machines, post pictures of mining rigs as evidence.

Remebers me of how some people failed at trying to kill Hitler, except the part of mining rigs.

There should be some thread locking program that scans for the word Hitler - it seems all threads eventually go there, one way or another.  Maybe "Hitler" can be a new term meaning "And now it's time to end the thread" = Hitler ?  Just a thought.

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[greyhawk]

You're so cute, how you all worry about 51% attacks and incredibly complex setups to achieve such an attack.

Wanna kill bitcoin? Here's how you kill bitcoin.

Wait for bitcoin conference, wait till all the movers and shakers are there, blow up the building, then claim it was a meeting of terrorists building doom machines, post pictures of mining rigs as evidence.

Remebers me of how some people failed at trying to kill Hitler, except the part of mining rigs.

There should be some thread locking program that scans for the word Hitler - it seems all threads eventually go there, one way or another.  Maybe "Hitler" can be a new term meaning "And now it's time to end the thread" = Hitler ?  Just a thought.

That's not new. It's called Godwin's Law and is about 20 years old or more.

[Raneman]

Bitcoins will end when deflation finally becomes unmanageable enough to kill the economy. Deflationary currencies are not good.

[josiahgarber]

When reading about bitcoins, I came across the 51% attack concept. This is something that any entity with enough money can do. If Bitcoins really become a dominant force and threaten any of the major currencies, is it not possible that they would launch a 51% attack and control or destroy the bitcoin system? Or, is there a built-in protection available in the technology to prevent this?

It seems pretty unlikely that there would be a successful 51% attack.  I think even the richest people or governments in the world would have a hard time pulling it off.

[BaronMcG]

I'd imagine that it wouldnt be overly difficult per se to carry out the 51% attack, i mean, everyone here is assuming they will just build a massive mining rig and take over the network, although if bitcoin was being targeted to be shut down i'm guessing it would be more than one government.

what would probably happen is all domain names linked to bitcoin, exchanges and mining pools would be turned off, as many servers as possible seized then every government that was aiming to shut it down turns on there own mining rigs and takes control of a lot more than 51%. If bitcoin was to threaten the monetary system then globally i'd be worried about a lot more than just a goverment pool harvesting 51% or more of the hashes.

Of course this would all happen after an official banning and some high profile arrests splashed all over the media to scare people into not doing it, under the pretence that bitcoin is used for buying drugs, building weapons (if they believed that dork who did that talk at the confrence in london i forget his name), and other such things that require money laundering.

Before they carried out a 51% attack they sure as hell would reduce the network hash rate a fair bit using more conventional methods (then probably use the impounded equipment to carry out the attack or fund it with money seized from accounts)

[socrates]

When reading about bitcoins, I came across the 51% attack concept. This is something that any entity with enough money can do. If Bitcoins really become a dominant force and threaten any of the major currencies, is it not possible that they would launch a 51% attack and control or destroy the bitcoin system? Or, is there a built-in protection available in the technology to prevent this?

It seems pretty unlikely that there would be a successful 51% attack.  I think even the richest people or governments in the world would have a hard time pulling it off.

I do hope that you are right.

Meanwhile, "Iranians are resorting to virtual currency to move money into and out of the country in a way that Western authorities find hard to detect." http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-29/dollar-less-iranians-discover-virtual-currency

I also found this interesting article by Neil Fincham, the MineForeman: http://mineforeman.com/2012/12/10/want-to-destroy-bitcoin-i-am-going-to-tell-you-how/