[ExI] Sell your Bitcoins!

[John Clark]

On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 9:10 AM Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
*>> And that would just be the sideshow, the attacker could also short
>> bitcoin just before the attack and make more money from the ensuing bitcoin
>> price collapse than from the double spending. *
>>
>
> *> To get 51% of mining resources today would require about $20 billion in
> mining equipment if I've done my math correctly. Why hasn't anyone done it
> yet if they could make so much more by collapsing Bitcoin?*
>


*A 51% attack hasn't happened yet because currently the conditions are not
right, but the times they are a-changin'. It's only a matter of time before
the bulk of a bitcoin miner's income comes from transaction fees, not block
subsidies of newly minted bitcoins, so unless those fees become
dramatically larger a 51% attack will become economically viable.*

*>> Compared to gold the supply of platinum is greater than the demand for
>> platinum, and the supply of rhodium is less than the demand for rhodium.*
>>
>
> *> It follows then, that if the demand for gold were less (e.g. people had
> no interest in hoarding it in vaults) it's value would fall. Do you agree?*
>

*Not necessarily because, as I said before, in economics things can be
nonlinear and very complicated. If like rhodium nobody ever used gold for
jewelry or money then the demand for gold would be less but so would the
supply, fewer gold mines would be put into operation.  *

* John K Clark*
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