Hal Finney: Future Bitcoin security depends on price

2011 Mar 18 See all posts
Hal Finney: Future Bitcoin security depends on price @ Satoshi Nakamoto
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Hal Finney

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https://satoshinakamoto.network

We know that Bitcoin's resistance to attack is based on the cost for the attacker to overwhelm the network, or at least to control a large fraction of its computing power. We assume this cost will continue to rise in the future so attacks will be infeasible even for well-funded attackers.

But the computational power of the network is proportional to difficulty; and it appears that difficulty is proportional to bitcoin price. It follows that unless bitcoins become substantially more valuable than they are today, the Bitcoin network will never be substantially more resistant to attack than it is today.

For Bitcoin to succeed and become secure, bitcoins must become vastly more expensive.