[ExI] Sell your Bitcoins!

[Kelly Anderson]

On Wed, May 20, 2026 at 6:10 AM John Clark via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> True, therefore in addition to quantum computers that is ANOTHER huge problem bitcoin is going to need to solve in the immediate future. Today about 96% of a minor's income comes from block subsidies (the award of a newly minted bitcoin) and only 4% from transaction fees; but that ratio is going to need to be completely inverted. And that won't be easy.
>

I think you're forgetting something basic here. Moore's Law will
continue to operate. So in ten years, the 4% will be easier to justify
based on the decreased cost of computing. The profit from mining also
decreases over time, so the last person to mine a bitcoin will have
spent a lot of cycles to get it.

> But there is a problem, the cost of a 51% attack is proportional to the hash rate and that
is proportional to how profitable mining is. So as block subsidies
decline mining becomes
less profitable and that causes the hash rate to drop and that causes
the cost of a 51%
attack to become economically viable and that causes one individual to
be able to engage
in double spending and that causes the complete destruction of any
trust the general public
had in bitcoin.
>

This might be an issue. I'll really have to think about this one.
However, the cost to defend against the attack also goes down.

>... the more people value it ...

That is exactly what makes it money.

> Yeah I guess. Bitcoins are very useful if you want to pay a ransom to a kidnapper, so I suppose you could say that in some circumstances it might save a life.

Bitcoin is JUST money. Nothing special about it over and above that.
Many forms of money have come and gone over the years. There's no
indication Bitcoin or ANY form of money will last forever. The
Hanke-Krus study found 66 documented hyperinflations, every one a
fiat. These are cases where paper money essentially went to zero.
There are probably as many or more crypto currencies that have done
the same, but most of those were jokes or very poorly executed.
Bitcoin is neither of those.

The only form of money that has lasted as long as it has is gold. And
that may collapse when asteroids make gold as common (for practical
purposes) as many other things. Abundance of anything tends to make
the rare common and thus reduce it's use as money. For example, the
tip of the Washington Monument was made of Aluminum, not gold because
at the time it was more valuable. A $4 stella was made from aluminum
in 1879. In a July 2008 Stack’s Bowers sale, this coin achieved a
collector price of $373,750.

https://coinweek.com/rare-finest-known-aluminum-coiled-hair-stella-at-greatcollections/

I doubt you would find many interested in an aluminum coin with a face
value worth hundreds of dollars today.

You may recall my old username KellyCoinGuy... cause, well, I know a
fair amount about the history of numismatics and started acoin.com as
a hobby. Collecting and studying the history of money was my major
hobby for many years. I'm likely the closest thing to an expert on the
history of money on this list, but I'm open to hearing other's
experiences. I've been a lifetime member of the American Numismatic
association since the mid 1990s. LM #3228 if I remember correctly. I
also have a degree in computer science and 22 years in that industry.
So I understand cryptography a TINY bit better than the average
person.

So, is Bitcoin eternal? No. Will it survive quantum computing in some
form, almost certainly.

-Kelly


-Kelly