China and the US a la Munger: "Bitcoin is rat poison!"

[cdog]

DISCLOSURE: I dont believe Bitcoin is viable, even if it were allowed to compete.

Hate to break the news man, but Bitcoin is already viable. Its not some failed experiment. Its real and its valued in BILLIONS of fiat papers.

[Sharrow]

The OP has some pretty wild ideas but some of it is definitely worth thinking about.

Bitcoin is a thorn in the side to the Chinese government and they're pretty hell-bent on removing it from the Chinese currency market. Look back to what they did to the Chinese Bitcoin exchanges last week. Their government doesn't like Bitcoin because it kind of alleviates the cap on the amount of money people can send out of the country, plus it's anonymous.

I believe the single biggest threat to the future of Bitcoin is the potential for Chinese government-sponsored sabotage of the Bitcoin network. They are believed to have stolen the top secret plans for America's stealth fighter planes and aircraft carriers, so I doubt Bitcoin is going to be too difficult for them to break, if they really wanted it to.

[deisik]

The OP has some pretty wild ideas but some of it is definitely worth thinking about.

Bitcoin is a thorn in the side to the Chinese government and they're pretty hell-bent on removing it from the Chinese currency market. Look back to what they did to the Chinese Bitcoin exchanges last week. Their government doesn't like Bitcoin because it kind of alleviates the cap on the amount of money people can send out of the country, plus it's anonymous.

I believe the single biggest threat to the future of Bitcoin is the potential for Chinese government-sponsored sabotage of the Bitcoin network. They are believed to have stolen the top secret plans for America's stealth fighter planes and aircraft carriers, so I doubt Bitcoin is going to be too difficult for them to break, if they really wanted it to.

No, this doesn't work this way and that's probably why China is so harsh towards bitcoin. If you know some encryption algorithm, this doesn't automatically mean that you can decipher everything encrypted with it (we are well past those good ol' times). That's how the matters stand with bitcoin...

Welcome asymmetric cryptography

[Sharrow]

You've got a very valid point but if they can get into The Pentagon's systems (arguably one of the most secure in the world) and steal hundreds of billions worth of top secret info which they're using to develop their own knock-off versions, a serious attack on Bitcoin isn't out of the realm of possibilities.

China could easily drop millions upon millions into developing and building ASIC supercomputers purely to try their hand at a 51% attack. If 51% fails, they could probably utilise thousands of their devs to go around hacking stuff. These are simple possibilities and no doubt there are many more they know of, which we don't.

I'm not a conspiracy theory nut or here to start arguments; I just believe that China are dead against crypto currencies for fiscal and political reasons and they're making it quite clear they won't tolerate crypto as a financial medium. China is still communist, still repressive and it will stop at nothing to ensure its fiat currency stays where they want it to.

[deisik]

You've got a very valid point but if they can get into The Pentagon's systems (arguably one of the most secure in the world) and steal hundreds of billions worth of top secret info which they're using to develop their own knock-off versions, a serious attack on Bitcoin isn't out of the realm of possibilities.

China could easily drop millions upon millions into developing and building ASIC supercomputers purely to try their hand at a 51% attack. If 51% fails, they could probably utilise thousands of their devs to go around hacking stuff. These are simple possibilities and no doubt there are many more they know of, which we don't.

I'm not a conspiracy theory nut or here to start arguments; I just believe that China are dead against crypto currencies for fiscal and political reasons and they're making it quite clear they won't tolerate crypto as a financial medium. China is still communist, still repressive and it will stop at nothing to ensure its fiat currency stays where they want it to.

They could actually try, but if they build ASIC supercomputers, then difficulty will grow exponentially and they will still ultimately fail to try a 51% attack. I think the majority of China successes at breaking into the Pentagon's systems and whatnot is primarily due to human factors and long tongues, the factors which bitcoin technology by its very nature is very well protected from...

[LAMarcellus]

More stink from the pig pen.          or is that Chinese food? porc fried rice?

I love the analogy to rat poison though as I often think of bankers as rats.

+1 for banker poison   which means your current score is -434


You must slowly be coming around.

[NUFCrichard]

Bitcoin doesn't have to be fully worldwide to be successful, china can build all the walls they want, one day there people will demand freedom to match their wealth