Campbell Harvey, a professor at Duke University’s School of Business in the US, calculated how much it would cost attack 51% to the Bitcoin network.
The scientist estimates that capturing at least 51% of the BTC network’s computing power and controlling it for a week would require approximately $6,07 billion. He included the following items in the cost list:
- $4,6 billion on cryptocurrency mining equipment;
- $1,34 billion for the construction of a data center;
- $130 million for electricity.
Bitcoin’s current market capitalization is $2,25 trillion, meaning that a 51% attack would require an investment of just 0,26% of the total issued coins. Therefore, Harvey believes that attackers could make a decent profit by attacking Block digital asset.
To do this, they would need to open short positions on the BTC futures market shortly before the attack, which would cause the coin’s price to collapse.
Campbell Harvey
The main danger facing those who dare to seize control of the Bitcoin network is the discovery of their plan. Building such a powerful mining farm would take several years, and it’s unlikely to go unnoticed. Opening short positions of very large amounts could be considered suspicious by exchange employees and blocked.
In this regard, the president of the BTC mining company American Bitcoin Corp Matt Prusak doesn’t believe a 51% attack is possible Block cryptocurrencies and regards Campbell’s calculations as purely theoretical.