Representatives of the cryptocurrency community criticised the statement by Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, who said there is a threat to Bitcoin from Chinese authorities. In his view, the government of the PRC could intervene in the operation of Bitcoin’s blockchain.
“At least 65% of mining capacity is concentrated in China, which gives the country’s government all it needs to gain control over the protocols, as well as to block and reverse transactions,” he said.
The statement was met with criticism in the community. Andreas Antonopoulos, author of the bestseller “Mastering Bitcoin”, said that the threat of a 51% attack on the Bitcoin network is unrealistic. It would require miners to incur enormous costs, and the result would be control over a single block for ten minutes.
Still concerned about a government “attacking” Bitcoin? pic.twitter.com/RehEypCBzF
— ₿itcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) November 20, 2019
Blockstream’s chief strategy officer Samson Mow shares a similar view.
“Equipment cannot be seized merely because mining operations take place in China. Even more unlikely is its use to block or reverse transactions. Mining in China is conducted by private companies and individuals. Seizure of equipment would put an end to private enterprise. The odds of this are the same as in the United States — zero,” he noted in a commentary for BTC Times.
He added that Larsen overestimates the Chinese government’s control over miners. The Ripple co-founder noted that the Chinese government subsidizes large amounts of electricity used in cryptocurrency mining.
“Chris Larsen is somewhat behind in his understanding of blockchain. The Chinese government does not subsidize Bitcoin mining or any other cryptocurrency mining. If so, I would like to know the sources of this information,” said Mow.
A week earlier Larsen stated that the United States is losing the battle for China’s global financial system, whose aim is to replace the dollar with the digital yuan.
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