A lot of people have tried claiming that Bitcoin would be wiped out at some point, but it’s never actually happened.
So, it makes you wonder, who really has the power to take it down? Ironically, it could be none other than Satoshi, the one who created it.
Imagine if the whole thing strayed so far from what Satoshi intended that he decided to just blow it up. It’s a pretty wild thought.
I get that Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but as everything keeps getting more centralized day by day, giving more power to the same groups that have ruled for ages, Satoshi could really mess with Bitcoin’s legitimacy. Like, what if he suddenly sold off all his coins at once? That could definitely shake things up.
Who has the power to take down Bitcoin
19 replies 212 views
john.cobraHero Member
Posts: 408 · Reputation: 2145
#2Apr 1, 2023, 04:54 PM
Do you really think Satoshi would do anything bad against Bitcoin? Even if things don't go the way he envisioned, Bitcoin still serves the people who use it as a currency and a hedge against rotten financial systems. It is always important to keep in mind that Satoshi may no longer be alive, and even if he is alive, he may not have access to the coins he mined.
To me, it is more likely that a comet will hit the Earth than that Satoshi will do anything negative against Bitcoin.
The only possible thing that can kill Bitcoin now is quantum computers, even Kevin o Larry said that this is why institutions won't risk more than 3% of their entire worth into Bitcoin, not until that phase is passed.
It seems the threat is real, at first I have always ruled it off but its now becoming more noticeable, the solution is likely a fork or an update.
Right now I don't see any other threat for bitcoin than this, and it will passed, gone are the early days where Bitcoin could still be stopped, now its too late.
diamond365Full Member
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#4Apr 2, 2023, 02:01 AM
Satoshi Nakamoto, the person or the group created Bitcoin, can not destroy Bitcoin. It's because Bitcoin was created and designed as a decentralized blockchain from development, technical upgrades to network and blockchain operations so that no single person or entity can destroy this blockchain. No matter how they really want to do this, it's simple impossible for them.
You can think, if Satoshi Nakamoto can destroy Bitcoin, Bitcoin would have very lower value and price than now. The high value and price of Bitcoin mainly comes from its decentralization, and its strength against any centralized attack attempt to destroy it.
The community realized about Bitcoin strength that decides its value, and makes its value higher and higher with time.
byte_orbitFull Member
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#5Apr 2, 2023, 04:32 AM
What kind of bullshit are you talking about? Satoshi can not do anything to Bitcoin, this is not a centralized system. Satoshi has the same amount of power as the rest of us, it is only cultist and religious idiots who would assign more value to his identity. The same idiots that follow braindead influencers on the internet.
Normal market behavior, just in a larger quantity, is going to compromise the credibility? Seriously fuck off, and stop opening stupid threads that are spreading misinformation. The biggest irony of this is that "market dumping all coins" at once would be the best thing that could happen, as most coins would be liquidated for extremely little price and the market would rebound shortly after. It needs the least amount of money to absorb a massive dump of coin this way, but here you are thinking that you have a point.
The identity called Satoshi is permanently dead, irrespective of whether a physical human who represented it is alive or not. Satoshi can never be again, even if his accounts were to wake up or his old coins started to move. People need to grasp this, but what to expect these days.
Complete nonsense, stop repeating quantum misinformation. There is no way in which quantum computers can kill Bitcoin. They could temporarily harm it, but that is the best that they could do.
sam_walletFull Member
Posts: 104 · Reputation: 365
#6Apr 2, 2023, 08:55 AM
I remember a discussion from some years back about if Satoshi may have left some back door in the Bitcoin network to serve as a fail safe. I think the general idea then was that there wasn't any.
As the network operates now, even Satoshi cannot destroy it. He could try crashing the market by selling off the bitcoins that is believed to be held by him, but that will have no impact on how Bitcoin operates and may not have a long term impact on the price.
A community based project can only be destroyed with the consensus agreement of the community, this has a lesser chance of happening than that comet hitting too.
What happens when he dumps his 1.1 million BTCs into on the market? The market flash-crashes to the ground and doesn't go up any longer? Like, has this not been the impact from some bigger stake holders in recent years? You haven't fully understood how Decentralizing works...Yeah, a little bit of liquidity crises here and there and a huge panic attack (which is normal) but nothing happens... Oh, except this would just be another record breaking buying opportunity for new investors!
Even Satoshi himself knows that Decentralizing= indestructible!!
SwiftOrbitSenior Member
Posts: 540 · Reputation: 1604
#8Apr 3, 2023, 12:39 AM
When people speculate that satoshi Nakamoto could harm Bitcoin, they usually imagine him suddenly moving or dumping the early mined coins. That would definitely shock markets. But market damage, the stronger structural argument is if bitcoin could be destroyed by its founder,it wouldnt be decentralized, at this stage bitcoin is secured by distributed incentives global infrastructures and game theory not by trust in one persons character.
So the real resilience of bitcoin isnt that Satoshi is benevolent, its that hes irrelevant to its operations. This is my opinion.
Bitcoin's fate and path have long been out of Satoshi's hands. The moment Satoshi went missing and new developers flock in, Satoshi's power over Bitcoin development and progress was transferred to the succeeding developers. Aside from that, the decentralized feature of Bitcoin makes it impossible for one entity to control the fate of Bitcoin.
He can nuke the Bitcoin blockchain, but those who oppose him and those who support Bitcoin to continue can just fork its way into establishing Bitcoin that is out of Satoshi's control. But in reality, Satoshi don't have the capability to nuke and destroy Bitcoin single-handedly. If you are talking about Satoshi selling his million BTC, it won't make Bitcoin drop to zero, but rather will only cause a temporary crash. Bitcoin is too big now for a single Satoshi to destroy.
Nahh, don't even go there, quantum computer is just a major fud driver. It has no power to kill bitcoin. There will always be a way even if they later on come into existence which I know they wont in the next couple of decades.. the fact that people are so concerned about bitcoin or Cryptography anytime they hear about quantum computers makes me wonder if that's the major reason they are inventing it for.. I thought technologies were designed so to solve major problems of man? How is bitcoin a problem? And if such technology we're to be invented finally, do we think it would be widely used by many? Or just by the elites..
The only thing that can ever lay a hand is not satoshi, it's not quantum computers, but the community of Devs who would come to a common agreement about such a move.. it's decentralised for a reason..
Where are my honest opinion regarding this question you ask.
1. Satoshi himself can neither thought of destroying bitcoin or even achieved doing it because he can't make an achievement over the years and thought of doing such overnight and ruin all he dreamt of by destroying Bitcoin.
2. Bitcoin cannot be destroyed because it is decentralized, even if that was his plan or thought to one day destroy it, then I think it's probably too late for him to achieve, the success has gone beyond what can be destroyed because it is accepted by the people.
alexwalletSenior Member
Posts: 347 · Reputation: 1933
#12Apr 4, 2023, 03:19 PM
There are several sub-definitions of "destroyed" depending on the nature of the damage. If you mean simply unusable, the government could, with extreme force, stop you from connecting to the Bitcoin network. But if it's a protocol-level attack, I don't know.
Perhaps I can use another common belief: "People wouldn't create a virus without an antidote."
humbleseedFull Member
Posts: 56 · Reputation: 429
#13Apr 4, 2023, 06:27 PM
Who can destroy Bitcoin?
Your question has a very particular connotation. Many things could be said about it metaphorically, but from a system architecture perspective, Bitcoins permanence is relative to the existence of just two individuals who want to carry out a transaction (P2P) and have that transaction confirmed. Without going into complex technical details: Bitcoin is not going to disappear in the strictest sense of the word.
Now, if we use the term destroy pejoratively to refer to it losing its hegemony or leadership, we enter the realm of speculation. However, if you look at the existence (or rather, permanence) of other cryptocurrencies, youll see that many are still there, like zombies. From my point of view (perhaps more of a gut feeling), its unlikely that anything or anyone can destroy Bitcoin in the sense of making it disappear completely.
There have been many discussions on this matter lately, about whether authorities caught him and forced him to move or sell his account, or what if Satoshi himself do it by moving or selling his amount etc. But he will not sell these coins but even if he do it, then the coins belongg to him, if he can't sell them like forced by the miners or every single miner will restrict the address or something like that comes into the 51% attack.
This will shaken the foundation of bitcoin and the trust will be gone, miners might be able to stop him but that would be a unsuccessful try I know because they can't do it but still let's imagine if they do it, then still it will hurt the bitcoin and maybe people who supports him like me would leave it once for all.
I wish not to leave it though.
gwei_minerSenior Member
Posts: 197 · Reputation: 966
#15Apr 4, 2023, 08:43 PM
I read this thread out and a friend of mine here with me said, best way that bitcoin can be destroyed now is by declaring Jeffery Esptein satoshi even though he is dead already bitcoin will go down, but I see some sense in it but however in my opinion its still not going to destroy bitcoin because the community could hold bitcoin from failing finally if they want to regardless of who the creator is.
But lets put imaginary things outside and focus on reality, since we probably not seeing bitcoin getting destroyed lets focus more on grabbing the opportunity it has brought us than find what could destroy.
cryptobridgeSenior Member
Posts: 221 · Reputation: 1481
#16Apr 5, 2023, 02:04 AM
Damn it! You didn't read through the entire post, did you?
OP is talking about Satoshi dumping all his coin on the market and not technically destroying it, he can't by the way.
First of all, those public keys are speculations, they are bunch of public keys people assumed belongs to Satoshi since they contained early mine Bitcoin. Since all of us are assuming, what if the private keys to those coins are loss, have you thought about it. What if Satoshi is even dead and no longer know you and I talk about this coins that everyone assume he is going to sell everything one day.
Strategy just bought 1k today and everyone is hype up, why not worry what Micheal is going to do about those Bitcoin they are stacking instead of worrying about someone who doesn't care about the existence of the wallets. The way private organization are aggressively buying Bitcoin, in 10 years they might hold 2-3x of Bitcoin Satoshi is holding, that's the thing you should care about.
I dont think even Satoshi can destroy Bitcoin at this point in time..nothing can basically completely destroy Bitcoin even though it might be massively affected negatively but that wouldnt still destroy it
but I get the irony especially relating to most of the centralized systems
Satoshi completely dumping all of his coins at once would have a very big negative impact on the market, but would that dumping cause Bitcoin its credibility?
Bitcoin can't be destroyed imo. I can't say the same thing for the prices though. Governments can indeed mess the prices up if it is in their best interest. Declare bitcoin illegal, shut the crypto exchanges down, ban any crypto usage... and see how bitcoin goes back to $100. It is as easy as that.
Will that kill bitcoin? No. It will only take us back to 2015 and before on the adoption/price time line.
Crypto industry creates employment and employment creates taxes so I doubt the govs will do something crazy like that.
shard_2019Member
Posts: 40 · Reputation: 172
#19Apr 5, 2023, 04:57 PM
Bitcoin has already gone so far. So even if Satoshi is forced to destroy bitcoin, he's no longer in full control with bitcoin.
Selling all his coins will only cause a temporary massive price drop, but it cannot destroy the whole system of bitcoin.
Let's just accept that bitcoin existence is here for good. The only reason that it will be fully destroyed is when the people behind the bitcoin community will leave bitcoin, or when all the bitcoin investors decide to sell their coins and leave bitcoin without hesitation.
Satoshi said he has moved on to other things, so why would he be the one that will destroy Bitcoin? If he decides to sell all his Bitcoin like you said, would that really destroy Bitcoin? It won't but will only make the market to crash such that it might go down to the price that it was not supposed to dip to again but that won't kill Bitcoin, when most investors starts to pump in money to buy Bitcoin at a discount price, you will see the market starts to recover again. When their a massive sell, it's supposed to cause the market to crash and that's when usually happen when supply is too much than demand.
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