IF the NSA wanted to take control over Bitcoin, how would they do it?

[AGD]

Assuming that there are several forces with different political agendas, which could compete in controlling Bitcoin core and I could make a vote, I'd prefer to be controlled by the US or EU (my personal "big brother" fave btw) rather than China (edit: or Russia, North-Korea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordania or whatever). Just my personal opinion.

[becoin]

I'd prefer to be controlled by the US or EU (my personal "big brother" fave btw) rather than China

I don't want to be controlled by anyone but if its inevitable I'd prefer China. US and EU is one and the same. EU is a subsidiary of US when it comes to control and surveillance.

[AGD]

Some historical stuff:
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/money/nsamint/nsamint.htm

HOW TO MAKE A MINT: THE CRYPTOGRAPHY OF ANONYMOUS ELECTRONIC CASH

Laurie Law, Susan Sabett, Jerry Solinas

National Security Agency Office of Information Security Research and Technology

Cryptology Division

18 June 1996

and

https://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/is-the-national-security-agency-behind-bitcoin/

Conclusion
Even today it’s too early to come to conclusions about Bitcoin. Perhaps it’s still a well-intentioned try, destined to failure by its faulty design, or destroyed by the agencies. Or it was designed from day one as a tool to help maintain control of the money supplies of the world.

But it is amazing how the NSA report addresses the ‘need’ for privacy with transactions as the main monetary issue, ignoring all the far, far more important problems we have with our money, and how Bitcoin answers exactly the challenge put forward.

Knowing the ways these people think and operate, this NSA report basically puts to rest the notion that Bitcoin was a completely innocent ‘free market’ or ‘human action’ kind of thing to begin with.

edit

Bitcoin architecture
The NSA report goes deeply into the challenges a crypto currency faces and lists the various security and implicated regulatory risks. Both from the point of view from regulators and developers of such schemes.

Amazingly, a key writer of the report is called Tatsuaki Okamoto. In the Bitcoin community this has been picked up as remarkably similar to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of the enigmatic developer of Bitcoin.

[Blawpaw]

I don't actually think it is possible even for the NSA to control bitcoin. From my understanding, the only way of controlling Bitcoin was to successfully implement a 51% attack, and that this point it would cost trillions of dollars just to do that. So, other than that was to try to flood the network with spammy transactions making the network very slow and ultimately starting to fail. I don't really think that is possible...
Or else They would need to shut off the internet of pull out the power lever all over the world. Do you think the powers that be would be willing to do that just to kill bitcoin?

[ahpku]

I don't actually think it is possible even for the NSA to control bitcoin. From my understanding, the only way of controlling Bitcoin was to successfully implement a 51% attack, and that this point it would cost trillions of dollars just to do that.

You're telling me miners have trillions invested in their gear?

[MingLee]

I don't actually think it is possible even for the NSA to control bitcoin. From my understanding, the only way of controlling Bitcoin was to successfully implement a 51% attack, and that this point it would cost trillions of dollars just to do that.

You're telling me miners have trillions invested in their gear?

Well, I think he might be saying that they would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try and get 51% of the network, but it might go beyond that if miners constantly buy to scale along with the added hashing power of the NSA.

Definitely won't cost a sizeable portion of the US debt though.

[JaneEverycunt]

^^USD is a world reserve currency, and NSA can just ask their bankster puppet masters to print up as much as they need right out of thin air?

[BADecker]

They would borrow huge sums of money from the Federal Reserve Bank, and buy all the bitcoins up.

[chek2fire]

fork it with Classic...

[BurtW]

Don't know about the NSA but here is how "Homeland Security" and the "Justice" department do it:

1) Find a person trading Bitcoins

2) Investigate that person for 18 months, get all their bank records, all their text messages (including all the deleted ones) from their cell phone carrier, and try to build a case, even the flimsiest pretense of a case will do

3) Put a tracker on their car and follow all their movements for 45 days to try to locate all their secret stashes of Bitcoins and cash

4) No matter how flimsy a case take it to a rubber stamping grand jury and use the patriot act to get SEALED search warrants, SEALED arrest warrants, and SEALED indictments and be sure to SEAL all the grand jury testimony (SEALED is key here so you can lie all you want to and no one will ever be able to find out what lies you said in order to convince the grand jury you had a case)

5) CRITICAL:  make sure the indictment is for a charge which allows civil asset forfeiture to attach

6) Arrest them, take everything of value you can get your grubby hands on:  all their personal and business computers, all their Bitcoins and cash, even their daughter’s piggy bank containing her birthday and Christmas gift money

7) Throw them in solitary confinement in a Federal holding facility for a few days to soften them up

Offer to let them go and give them their stuff back if they pay a large sum of cash and Bitcoins to the Federal asset forfeiture slush fund

9) Use the money stolen in step to go to step 1), rinse and repeat

Read all about it here:  
http://www.burtw.com
http://www.jmwagner.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1182005
(and many other threads here on this forum)

[X badapple X]

Wow, sorry for your loss bro

[BurtW]

Wow, sorry for your loss bro

Thanks.  I am still mad about it as you can imagine.

[Monnt]

Wow, sorry for your loss bro

Thanks.  I am still mad about it as you can imagine.

They actually did that to you? It's pretty harsh.

If they let you go, why did they charge you? Ive never heard of anything of the sort. Did you do anything or trade with anyone sketchy?

[youyou_]

the story of burtW is f*** sick

[27QVUTZj8rgZP1]

fork it with Classic...

It is plausible and intelligent. Just like the NSA.

Go, go, classic! 

[ArticMine]

Flood the network with a large number of transactions to saturate the 1 MB blocksize limit or what ever effective 3.2 MB blocksize limit is implemented. Keep the attack going until people just give up. 

[owlcatz]

Flood the network with a large number of transactions to saturate the 1 MB blocksize limit or what ever effective 3.2 MB blocksize limit is implemented. Keep the attack going until people just give up. 

In theory sure, but how could they really get away with it, unless resorting to evil tactics, probably illegal.

[coldice]

They will need more hash power than the whole world mining today to do a 51% attack, which is probably nit gonna happen. There is no other way to block bitcoins.

Your posting reminds me on this:

Right one is the right method to do it in a right way  

Cheapest and durable.

[Viyamore]

I think they can't do it..many of sites websites they can't handle. Then it will happen it thry will add more peoples who will focus on monitoring bitcoins.also they will need more advancr technology to do it .

[Jeremycoin]

If they want to do it, they have to control all of the network on the internet. Or they can do it with the other way, by owning >50% of all the Bitcoin which likely not possible.