Comment by mvkel
1 month ago
Isn't this the same thing as saying "if everyone just agrees that a dollar bill is actually just a piece of paper, USD becomes worthless"? Albeit at a smaller scale
1 month ago
Isn't this the same thing as saying "if everyone just agrees that a dollar bill is actually just a piece of paper, USD becomes worthless"? Albeit at a smaller scale
I don't think it is the same thing. Everyone agrees that mining the next block is valuable.
Unless they didn’t.
There’s nothing inherently valuable about crypto beyond what value people assign to it in their minds.
Same with all money. Please research more before parroting this argument. You are not the first person to think of it.
17 replies →
But that's irrelevant to the question above. The question asks "isn't [this attack] the same as saying that if everybody agrees that the USD is worthless, then it is worthless?".
The answer is "no, it's not the same". The attack does not require everybody to agree that the bitcoin is worthless.
Obviously if everybody agrees that the bitcoin is worthless, then it is worthless. But that's a separate topic.
Okay, fine. Everyone involved** agrees that mining the next block is valuable.
That's a good question, but it is different. The equivalent would be "if everyone just agrees that a bitcoin is worth nothing, then it is worth nothing".
I don't know if I have a good comparison here, but maybe something like "if the bank keeps your money for a little longer before validating your transaction, they can use your money for a little longer and make more money from it". Of course if your bank says that a transaction takes 1 year, you will go to another bank. But if they say it takes a day...