Possibility of a 51% attack

[Mlchel]

Dear bitcointalkers,

I've been interested in bitcoin for quite a while now, and almost mined half a bitcoin in April when it was still viable with a GPU.

I've been discussing about the safety of the network with some friends lately. They, and also many people on the internet, argue that due to the massive network speed, it is impossible for someone (even governments) to attack the bitcoin by the means of a 51% attack.

However, I assume that the main contribution on the network speed is coming from Europe and the USA. If we assume that the USA and EU want to get rid of bitcoin, would it be possible to put a large amount of hashing power in continents such as South America or Africa, and temporarily shut down the internet in the USA and EU (They could easily blame Al Qaida or a similar organization). By removing a large sum of hashing power from the network, a 51% would require much less hashing power then.

Am I missing something which would make such an attack impossible?

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[favdesu]

look, use the search function. there are literally 100 threads about this already.

[Hexadecibel]

This is a good read too:

http://gavintech.blogspot.com/2012/05/neutralizing-51-attack.html