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Comment by edgyquant | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that their reach kind of is. If sanctioned the US government could almost certainly 51% attack any given crypto and redirect funds to whoever they want. This isn’t what happened but it’s laughable to think the US government isn’t capable of tracking down the account and seizing coins.

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I doubt they could 51% Bitcoin with any sort of haste. Perhaps with a few year plan. Simply put it’s a procurement issue. There are limited ASICS and they are distributed among many operators, mostly foreign. There aren’t massive ASIC stockpiles in the US just waiting to be purchased. A government 51% attack would probably involve doing a private chip run.

Also even if 51% attack is succeeded, then BTC price would crash so victim can't collect original $.

> I doubt they could 51% Bitcoin with any sort of haste.

From when they planned for the capacity, probably not. But how do we, at any time, know that hasn’t happened in the past?

> A government 51% attack would probably involve doing a private chip run.

Sure, and when that classified capacity is acquired via, say, the NSA’s black budget, we’ll all know before (or, heck, even after, until they decide to something disruptive with it) they decide to light up the capacity...how?

OTOH, any attack won’t just be to redirect funds, because that can’t be done without broader disruption that would make it pointless for that purpose.

then the hackers would just send a little bit at a time in case it gets intercepted

It was just an example. If the US government is dead set on hurting you they can and will; that’s my point.

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