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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.

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> 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.

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

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