How crypto goes to zero | The Economist - 0 views
-
Knocking the stool out is extraordinarily hard, and the current high value of bitcoin and ether makes it even harder. To attack a blockchain and shut it down requires gaining 51% control of the computational power or value of tokens staked to verify transactions. The more valuable the tokens, the more energy it takes to attack a proof-of-work chain, like Bitcoin, and the more money to attack a proof-of-stake chain, like Ethereum. The security of these chains—as measured by the amount someone would have to spend to attack them—is now in the region of $10bn to $15bn.
-
It would require either a government or an extraordinarily rich individual to mount such an attack
-
Unravelling is therefore the more conceivable path. The events of this year have revealed just how prone to this sort of thing crypto is.
- ...10 more annotations...