If War breaks out between China and the US, can China hack Bitcoin?

[abuya55]

Chinese miners, not the centralized authority control 50% of Bitcoin mining capacity. So technically "hacking Bitcoin" is impossible.

[pooya87]

Chinese miners, not the centralized authority control 50% of Bitcoin mining capacity. So technically "hacking Bitcoin" is impossible.

"miners" also don't control anywhere near 50% of the mining power.
there are mining pools that are aggregated hashing power of many individual miners that control 16-17% of the total hashrate at best.
there are individual miners (mining farms) that produce a much smaller percentage of that hashrate and connect to those pools.

not to mention that even if some entity owned 100% of the hashrate, the still can't "hack" bitcoin.

[Shimmiry]

The Chinese government can't hack bitcoin to control its price because it is tough for someone to access its network due to the support of blockchain technology. But there is no perfect technology that has a high security, so there is a chance for bitcoin to be hacked in the future. And it is impossible for the US and China to have a conflict in the middle of the pandemic.

[Devawnm367]

I am not really sure what a war between America and China has to do with Bitcoin but to answer your question no. Bitcoin is not owned by the United States. (Atleast I do not believe so) There are alot of people out there who believe the CIA created bitcoin. I personally do not believe that to be. IMO why would the CIA create something that is so hard to be tracked?

What exactly do you mean by hack bitcoin? Like steal all of the private keys to every wallet with a balance greater than 0? Or hack each addresses location? Bitcoin has yet to reach a Trillion dollar market cap. They would be lucky to get 1 Trillion USD worth of bitcoin if they were to steal EVERY wallet with a balance!

I believe it Bitcoin could be hacked it would have been done when BTC hit 20k. But I also figured people with wallets that mined blocks of 50 would have sold at 20k. I mean I would have... But I guess thats why I am broke today!

[theskillzdatklls]

Countries can do whatever they want, but this would never happen since they don't have adequate control over it's infrastructure/printing.

Best case scenario they'd create an altcoin and manage that.

[lepbagong]

Countries can do whatever they want, but this would never happen since they don't have adequate control over it's infrastructure/printing.

Best case scenario they'd create an altcoin and manage that.

obviously all policies of course the state can to do with what can be done, because the state has the highest authority in taking action for the greater interests and for the interests in all priorities.

but all the policies that the country does are certainly very measurable and considered good and bad before taking action, because the impact that will occur could have caused something greater than what was done.
it is different if it is the individual who cannot do it by the government, maybe only the policy that needs to be regulated so that it does not have an impact on the country as well.

[Kakmakr]

"A 51% attack is an attack on a blockchain by a group of miners who control more than 50% of the network's mining hash rate. Attackers with majority control of the network can interrupt the recording of new blocks by preventing other miners from completing blocks."

" The attackers would be able to prevent new transactions from gaining confirmations, allowing them to halt payments between some or all users. They would also be able to reverse transactions that were completed while they were in control of the network, meaning they could double-spend coins. "

- Source : https://www.investopedia.com/terms/1/51-attack.asp

A while ago it cost about $481,233 per hour to perform a PoW 51% attack.. How much bullets can be bought for that amount of money or even medical supplies or other weapons. 

The reason why they would want to attempt it, would be to destroy people's confidence in Bitcoin and not to steal anything with a double spend. By just performing at 51% attack, people would lose confidence in the technology and the they would start dumping it on a large scale. The price of Bitcoin would take a massive blow and it will effectively impact the global economy. (Businesses built around the technology will go bankrupt and exchanges will lose liquidity and trading volumes will collapse etc.) 

[fiulpro]

Hack Bitcoins ?

 I do think you don't realize that Bitcoins is actually something that is most likely non hackable if I may say.
 The security of your Bitcoins depends on you ' some factors like:-

- Which wallet company you choose
- Does your mobile have third party non verified apps
Stuff like that greatly influences the security of your Bitcoins itself.

I do think we should realize that , no country can hack Bitcoins , due to Mining farms being located dominately in China , what they can do is , seize the Mining farms and then at the end of the day reduce the hash rate.

- Which would mean , in the future if a war breaks our and the hash rate declines the transaction might become a lot less safer .

*Therefore they won't be able to touch the existing Bitcoins but they can for sure make the future transactions less safe*

[NavI_027]

I am not really sure what a war between America and China has to do with Bitcoin but to answer your question no.

I am wondering the same thing. Well, maybe OP is thinking that powerful countries will get as much resources as they could so that they'll be on the lead if war begins. But actually, the question is not specific. It was a little bit absurd .

Anyway, let's put in this way. If powerful countries will engage into a cyber war I am still not sure who would win. We know that there are also many chinese geeks lurking, russians are good also but americans got Walter O'Brien tho lmao (alright, enough movie marathon).

[bitcampaign]

I guess that is absurd, there is no reason for China to hack or attack on the bitcoin network, bitcoin doesn't belong to a country either America or others, a trade war between them doesn't seem to have anything to do with bitcoin, so let it separate and don't connect bitcoin from the war between the two countries

[mistemb]

idk how would they hack bitcoin? its like asking to hack every computer in the world. its nearly impossible , they called it decentralize for a reason ^_^

[7788bitcoin]

idk how would they hack bitcoin? its like asking to hack every computer in the world. its nearly impossible , they called it decentralize for a reason ^_^

That is not what the OP is telling, if you look at the bitcoin network majority of the hash rate comes from China and the government can take control over these mining farms and control the entire bitcoin network, what you do not understand is that bitcoin is decentralized in nature but majority of the hashing farms are centralized and if you control these major mining farms you can control the bitcoin network.

[Latviand]

You did consider WW3 as a factor but not a threat, if ever two superpowers would go to war at each other then, data mining and bitcoin would be out of question because that war will ensure total mutual destruction and what happens when they both use their nuclear capabilities, the whole world will feel the impact and there will be electro magnetic pulse that will cause the disruption plus the fireball and the raditation after that,

If you think of those possibilities, WW3 is less likely to happen as many sectors will become really affected and become useless. Money will probably become nonsense as this war can make most of the people die. All currency will become valueless once US and China started to bomb each other's territory. This will probably bring a long-term destruction to humanity and to all industry.

full scale war will remove the worth of many things and that includes cryptocurrency, in my opinion China would do that to buy off allies that will help them, in a war of attrition I do not know who will when but let's hope that it will never ever happen.

Just don't be too anxious about that because World leaders are not that dumb enough to not prioritize the safety of its people. Governments right now are worrying about their economy above else, they are worrying about inflation, cryptocurrency adoption, and this pandemic. US are struggling right now, while China is really not that affected in this pandemic and they have a stable economy compared to other countries.

[mardaed]

A war to break out between United States of America and China is not impossible to happen. When this happens, it would cause a huge impact globally for sure. However, I agree with others with that being said, what is the connection of the war to Bitcoin. I want to commend you for having a constructive imagination but as far as we know, for years now, Bitcoin has gained popularity but not as huge to be used as a weapon for a war of economy.

[Shasha80]

I do not understand your question, what is the relationship between the war between China and the US with Bitcoin.
After all, nothing until now has been able to hack Bitcoin, therefore Bitcoin is trusted by many people. I am sure
there will be no war between China and the US, we all have the same enemy the corona virus. So now is not the right
time to go to war.

[VanityWallets2015]

I agree that there is no chance of a war breaking out between these two countries. Also, massive effect internationally will be taking place by then and none of these countries could ever survive without huge damage and loss to their resources. I also agree with thoughts of others, what is the relation between the war and Bitcoin. If a war happens, I don't think that china would be focusing to other things beside war strategies.

[serjent05]

idk how would they hack bitcoin? its like asking to hack every computer in the world. its nearly impossible , they called it decentralize for a reason ^_^

That is not what the OP is telling, if you look at the bitcoin network majority of the hash rate comes from China and the government can take control over these mining farms and control the entire bitcoin network, what you do not understand is that bitcoin is decentralized in nature but majority of the hashing farms are centralized and if you control these major mining farms you can control the bitcoin network.

Assuming war erupted and China manipulate mining farm to attack the network, what will happen next then?  Would it bring more fund to China's war campaign?  Does anyone realized that once the Bitcoin Network is hacked, trading activities will be halted?  Let's assume that China gain a control over the Bitcoin network and produce millions of BTC on the new chain, who will then buy them?  The effort of China to cease control of the Bitcoin network will only be in vain because, once the hack is known, all demands will eventually stop living China with worthless bags of "BTC".

[pixie85]

A 51% attack can hack a single transaction but keeping the attack on and hacking one after another requires so much resources that even a country like China would have a problem.

Also they would need the hardware so to get it they would have to steal all private mines in china and make it work for them. Also they would be losing money because even if they got some coins out of it the price would crash by the time they'd be able to sell.

[BChydro]

A 51% attack can hack a single transaction but keeping the attack on and hacking one after another requires so much resources that even a country like China would have a problem.

Also they would need the hardware so to get it they would have to steal all private mines in china and make it work for them. Also they would be losing money because even if they got some coins out of it the price would crash by the time they'd be able to sell.

If China is going for war then they will first take over the mining farms situated in China and there are plenty of them who could very well do the 51% attack and then the most popular ASIC manufacturer is located there and with all these aiding them do you think mining hardware would be a big issue. We have developers monitoring everything and if there is a hostile takeover then we will have a fork and kill that chain.

[Yatsan]

At this point of time that we are still facing a crisis, it is impossible that a war would arise for we are already on a deadly scenario and conducting a war would just create a massive destruction and would not give any good. Also, people will surely not get to participate for their concerns are more on health related. Also, even if such thing would be possible to happen that a war may arise between China and United State, the war would be mainly because of different political stand and regarding other issues which will not concern Bitcoin so basically they would not give a care for the hacking of Bitcoins once a war arises between those two big countries.

The short response would be no because there is no valid and strong reason to do such and why would they even care about it if the reason of the tension between them are mainly to political issues and other concerns that are needed to be attend to.