Author: Billy Tetrud 2021-05-25 19:40:58
Published on: 2021-05-25T19:40:58+00:00
The security of Bitcoin is a concern for many, and in a recent email exchange among community members, the cost of an attack was discussed. Billy Tetrud asked the question of how much an attacker would need to spend to execute an attack on Bitcoin. It was determined that while the US government has an annual budget of almost $5 trillion, only about 5% of that could be allocated towards attacking Bitcoin, which may not make a $1 trillion attack feasible.Melvin Carvalho added that the security model of Bitcoin is dual and heterogeneous, with both a block subsidy and fee model. One is steady, and one fluctuates, making an attack more effective when fees are at their lowest. In the future, fees will make up a larger proportion of the total block reward, so this is something to consider. A reorg could be seen as disruptive from the point of view of applications that rely on Bitcoin blocks, requiring more confirmations for larger transactions.Tetrud estimated that an attacker would need to spend around $1.5 billion for a lower bound on the cost of an attack and $72 billion for an upper bound on a US government attack. China's upper bound on a government attack is $720 billion, but this is unlikely to be politically feasible. Reducing Bitcoin's security may not be advisable since its value will continue to rise, making it more lucrative to attackers and more damaging to Bitcoin.It is difficult to determine the exact amount of security needed without more accurate analysis, but it seems possible that there is enough security at present. However, reducing security to save costs is unclear since it is unknown how much security is necessary and how much is currently in place. The security created by miners affects all Bitcoins regardless of their individual transactions, making it impossible to provide security only for those transactions without extending it to all transactions on the chain.Various proposals have been made to address concerns about energy consumption and pollution from mining Bitcoin. These include making proof of work a proof of environmental kindness or coding incentives for investigating and proving miners' business practices. However, there is no single solution, and any proposed solution would require agreement on what kinds of solutions are acceptable.As Bitcoin grows, it may become necessary for individuals to enforce desirable behavior themselves rather than relying solely on local governments. As the price of Bitcoin increases, so does its security - if it were to increase by 10x, the security would also increase nearly 10x. Despite concerns about security and attacks, Bitcoin's value and potential continue to rise.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T22:10:01.191947+00:00