# Gavin Andresen
# 2012-12-26 18:13:48
# https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=133319.msg1420883#msg1420883

I sent ShadowOfHarbringer's some of my thoughts on this in this private message: @p{brk}

@s{quotedtext}
@s{quotedtext}
 @p{brk}
I don't worry much right now about economically irrational, "I'm going to spend millions of dollars to disrupt the bitcoin network" attacks because I don't think anybody is going to spend millions of dollars to disrupt our tiny payment network.  @p{par}

I have no idea what bitcoin payments will look like in 5-10 years; I expect all sorts of trust mechanisms and relationships to develop that are independent of the bitcoin network, and I suspect some of those will make 51% attacks irrelevant. @p{par}

And I have no idea what the mining landscape will look like in 5-10 years; if thousands of companies around the world are installing bitcoin mining hardware for free in every house built in cold climates (generate bitcoins and get a discount on your heating bill) then it may be completely inconceivable for even a government to amass enough hashing power to mount a 51% attack. @p{par}

So while I encourage y'all to keep thinking about it as an interesting theoretical problem, it is only slightly higher on my personal priority list than worrying about quantum computers breaking ECDSA. @p{brk}