131–140 of 431 posts
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A nation state can’t ban it globally. A 51% attack undermines confidence globally.
some nation states can - for example, the US can easily ban it globally. They don't because it does no harm to anyone.
Closest thing to that I can think of is nuclear proliferation but you’d have to get countries to agree and play strong arm tactics. Possible I guess but not “easily”
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to what end? Undermining trust in bitcoin isn't a goal on its own - unless you're some mastache twiddling movie villain. If you're a nation state, and want to undermine the legitimacy of bitcoin, you can easily just institute laws to ban it. Much cheaper.
A nation state can’t ban it globally. A 51% attack undermines confidence globally.
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> doesn't this effectively mean China can force a 51% attack by just strongarming the pools that operate there? Yes, in theory. There's a coordination problem to get all the pools to do what you want, but if they (or anyone) could pull that off, then yes. So then what happens? If a single entity controls >50% of the hash power of the network, they could start finding blocks with arbitrary (invalid) transactions and a…
inserting invalid transactions is not the double spend issue. If their hash rate is over 50% they can "unconfirm" a confirmed transaction by making a chain with more work on it. This is how the attack plays out in simplified form: Bitcoin is sent to an exchange by the attacker, confirmed, sold and withdrawn for cash. Attacker then makes a chain with more work on it than the chain where the Bitcoin was sent to the exc…
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Germany is replacing nuclear/coal with wind/solar energy: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energiemix#/media/Datei:Energi... (grey = wind, red = nuclear, black/brown = coal) Both nuclear and coal are shrinking since ~ 2000 and both sources of energy have been replaced by renewables since then. Currently ~40% of power produced in Germany comes from renewables. Wind energy has become #1 source of power from 0 twenty years…
Nope Germany is massively relying on nuclear energy produced by its neighbors.
A good reminder that Bitcoin runs on cheap renewables is BS. See also miners buying gas power plants in New York.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26828479
Also a good time to point out that there are energy efficient blockchains that work differently from bitcoin -- not all crypto is as power hungry (some use disk space, or memory, or even just the tokens themselves to replace bitcoin's proof of work model).
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- Unless I seriously misinterpreted the news, the significant chunk of hash rate cut due to this blackout is all coal. - Until hydro and other renewables cover all electricity needs, crypto mining hogging hydro just pushes other non-crypto power demands to fossil fuel.
Technically speaking, western China has a lot of renewable power and not as much demand for it as eastern China. If they were mining in western China to take advantage of lower rates, and that energy can’t be transmitted East anyways, then it might make sense (or they could just move some industry from eastern China to western China to take advantage of renewables, or get that UHV grid working so they can move renewa…
As far as I can recall, there was power shortage a few months ago, and I have suspected bitcoin mining would contributed to some of it.
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Also a good time to point out that there are energy efficient blockchains that work differently from bitcoin -- not all crypto is as power hungry (some use disk space, or memory, or even just the tokens themselves to replace bitcoin's proof of work model).
So point them out, please. One that is efficient on all levels.
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You're thinking too small on the impact--China doesn't need to double spend bitcoins. What they could do is cause a loss of confidence in Bitcoin overnight and collapse the price.
How is that even remotely strategically good for China......? These miners are probably making USD or some other foreign fiat at the end of the day which adds to the supply of foreign reserves without needing to use trade... And if they're siphoning power to get around currency exchange limits moving wealth abroad then a traditional crackdown to confiscate their equipment would be much more effective (you can't exact…
The minors are not making USD for foreign reserves to be honest, they are mostly a way to transfer wealth out of the country (buying equipments and electricity and sell bitcoins abroad or not selling it at all). That's why China has banned its bank to do crypto related transactions and exchanges mostly. However, it is hard to enforce. You can find many exchange use Bank Transfer, AliPay and WeChat pay.
Owning Bitcoins are legal in China. Who knows once the digital RMB is out.
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You're thinking too small on the impact--China doesn't need to double spend bitcoins. What they could do is cause a loss of confidence in Bitcoin overnight and collapse the price.
How is that even remotely strategically good for China......? These miners are probably making USD or some other foreign fiat at the end of the day which adds to the supply of foreign reserves without needing to use trade... And if they're siphoning power to get around currency exchange limits moving wealth abroad then a traditional crackdown to confiscate their equipment would be much more effective (you can't exact…
The Chinese government has shut down Bitcoin transactions in China before because it goes counter to their centralized economic control. If uppity insurgents or billionaires who they wish to punish (e.g. Jack Ma) are heavily invested in Bitcoin, they may want to crash it. Alternatively, it may be seen as a way of people to launder money outside of China and their control. Maybe just want to throw other financial markets into chaos.
Why would the miners cooperate? I can think of 7.62 reasons why.
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Also a good time to point out that there are energy efficient blockchains that work differently from bitcoin -- not all crypto is as power hungry (some use disk space, or memory, or even just the tokens themselves to replace bitcoin's proof of work model).
So point them out, please. One that is efficient on all levels.