Fresh study has revealed that the threat of a “51% attack” on Bitcoin (BTC) has been severely underestimated by the market.
An attacker might per chance well well easiest must employ about $6 billion to utterly rob down the Bitcoin community, in step with novel work by Duke College finance professor Campbell Harvey.
Harvey famend that both Bitcoin and gold are viewed as “hedges against currency depreciation,” but Bitcoin faces principal greater dangers than gold.
In step with the study, an attacker might per chance well well rob preserve an eye on of the Bitcoin community inside of per week. This would require buying roughly $4.6 billion fee of hardware, spending $1.34 billion to create data centers, and incurring $130 million in weekly electrical energy costs. The attacker might per chance well well additionally short Bitcoin in derivatives markets, generating big earnings from the associated fee decline, per chance extra than offsetting the attack costs.
Nonetheless, some consultants take into consideration this misfortune is overblown. Bitcoin USA President Matt Prusak argued that such an attack is nearly about very unlikely to put into effect in apply, announcing, “Amassing and deploying mining hardware takes years. Furthermore, short transactions requiring big quantities of collateral are inviting, and exchanges might per chance well well shut down transactions in the event that they detect suspicious activity.”
*Here is rarely any longer investment advice.
