So, the New York Times article recently which basically was loaded with energy FUD, about a Bitcoin mining company in Rockdale, TX (not linking to it, but a quick Google search and you can read it) got me to thinking – is the centralization of these miners a potential serious attack vector? Here’s what the Federal Govt could try. First get all these miners that have deals with various states where the state govt can make them shut off at any time (to lessen energy grid load), get these all kind of centralized, where an order can be issued to all of them at the same time, maybe through some common messenger. Then, switch them all off at the same time, in every state. Hash rate plummets, block times will increase substantially, maybe 30-40 minute blocks or higher. I’m saying if it was a huge amount of these miners, all across the nation. So then the difficulty adjustment happens, so the block times normalize…then they switch them all back on, all of a sudden, at the same time. All at once. Hash rate spikes, now you’ve got like, 2 minute block times! Until the next difficulty adjustment, then the block times normalize, and bam! They switch them all back off. Rinse and repeat.
Of course it wouldn’t hurt Bitcoin, but it would serve to discredit the network a bit, because of the unpredictable block times, therefore unpredictability of transaction clearing times. People wouldn’t know whether their medium fee send will take 2 minutes, or their high fee send will take an hour. Or whatever. And while all of us would still believe, this could discourage some newcoiners from signing on.
Is this any real concern? Or am I missing something and this couldn’t happen? Please accept the premise that the federal govt is able to actually get a substantial number of these miners centralized and submissive to requirements to shut down for grid stabilization. Thanks so much!
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You are missing that the Texas miners had a *contract* stipulating they will *get paid to stop mining* if there’s too much load on the grid. No one turned them off, they complied with the contract they voluntarily entered in. No matter what Faux News or other such propaganda outlets tell you to think, governments in democratic countries don’t act arbitrarily against private entities and are held to account *first by the press* if there’s even a whiff of that and then by the law if something is really fishy.
Just another ludicrous “the government can attack us” concern troll. Why?
Also, the difficulty adjustment is coded specifically to avoid the oscillation you’re predicting. That happens in shitcoins, not Bitcoin
lol yeah sure
> What’s stopping the US Federal Govt from conducting a “miner switching” attack on the Bitcoin network, using their ability to switch miners off and on based on supposed power requirements?
First, the fact that it has no such ability.
Second, the Constitution, the courts, Bill of Rights, etc.
Third, people in the US own a lot of firearms. The politicians and bankers are big cowards.
Yes, it is a concern, true decentralization requires not only decentralization in terms of software paradigm but also in hardware, network, manufacturing, energy, etc. A lot of work to be done, work in progress…