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Comment by thebigspacefuck | Hacker News Reader

So the answer is for less than $3,000 and I could potentially gain millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin Gold?

What are the downsides? Is this illegal?

You can't directly steal or create coins. Except for the coins you get for your branch of the blockchain if it becomes accepted. The trick is that you can double-spend.

The downsides? You need capital to spend and double-spending is fraud.

Committing fraud is very much illegal, yes. It may be hard to prove and prosecute, but it is undoubtedly illegal. (Though IANAL.)

Can utilizing features ever be fraud?

I'm not sure. Is utilizing the feature that no guard is watching that expensive bracelet in the store illegal?

But in all countries where crypto-currencies are not considered money, is it illegal to double-spend bits?

If I find a funny-looking stone, and promise to give it to you in exchange for goods, it would be fraud to give the funny-looking stone to somebody else instead. Cryptocurrencies are no more "money" than the funny-looking stone, but one could still commit fraud with them.

Stealing a bracelet from a store is made illegal typically through the force of a state.

As is fraud.

Who are you defrauding? Under what jurisdiction? The ability to be 51% attacked is a feature of the design. You expect all the actors to commit enough computing capacity to prevent such an attack as it’s in their own best interest.

Depending on the jurisdiction it might be fraud or not. It's effectively the same as writing a check that you know doesn't have funding behind it.

still fraud.

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