Why haven't gamers united to take down Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies?

5 points by Wassimo 5 years ago | 21 comments

I was thinking about the effects on GPU prices that gamers are pissed off about and all the bad that Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency currency cause with the crime and environmental impact. There are millions of gamers around the world with powerful gaming PC's, if they started a mining pool they could at first start attacking some of the smaller Cryptocurrencies. An encrypted wallet that no one can withdrawal from could be used and the mining rewards could be used to post useless transactions to take up block space.

As mining power grows as more people learn about the project, they can start performing 51% attacks to further disrupt the network. Eventually that crypto will collapse and they can move up to larger ones till they get to bitcoin. I don't think they would even have to target bitcoin because eventually trust would go down as publicity picks up the story and everything collapses for the better.

kleer001 5 years ago |

Sorry OP, this is naive on every level, economic, political, environmental, psychological, etc... Every assumption you made to form your proposal is incorrect.

You need to do a bit more research into the fundamental mechanisms of Bitcoin. Read and understand the white paper (it's widely available and widely talked about). Namely the game theory behind why proof of work is so powerful and compelling. Also some research and intuition building into how big numbers work, human psychology, group dynamics, the foundations of political theory, and the history of economics would help answer your questions.

To address your plan, step by step:

Gamers aren't a united front. They're not that pissed off.

Bitcoin and crypto aren't causing crime (weapons don't cause crime, humans use weapons to commit crimes when they have an opportunity and a motive) and their negative environmental impact is minimal compared to, say, big oil. You'd have to look at where the electricity comes from for each miner to do that, and nobody's done that as far as I can tell. All I've seen it total electricity use, not source of said electricity. Some of it is renewable and/or carbon neutral.

If they did get together and start a mining pool they would likely keep the money they make. It would take a severe pathology to form a huge group and then burn money. The electricity used to mine those coins costs money.

It does happen but it's astonishingly rare:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Qu...

Nobody is going to deposit their coins into a write-only wallet.

Those useless transactions wouldn't take up a lot of block space. See again about burning money.

tromp 5 years ago |

> till they get to bitcoin

All the GPUs of all gamers in the world can't put a dent in bitcoin's ASIC based hashrate.

Ethereum is the best they can hope for. They better hurry up though, as it won't stay PoW for long.

Wassimo 5 years ago | |

I think it's possible but they necessarily wouldn't have to target bitcoin until later. Smaller Currencies to start and exposing the flaw will expose a hole even in bitcoin.

nanoshelter 5 years ago |

... because we like Bitcoin? It is the currency that will debase the USD as the global reserve currency so what is there not to like about it?

duxup 5 years ago |

I don't think "gamers" have been a united group, ever. Much of the gaming community is pretty toxic towards... each other.

Some gamer tells you to install some rando software and follow their instructions... you going to do that?

Wassimo 5 years ago | |

The software would have to be open source and auditable. Closed source NO chance.

duxup 5 years ago | | |

I think you overestimate how much "gamers" would care about open source.

eswat 5 years ago |

Most of these GPUs are mining Ethereum and not Bitcoin (ASIC is far more efficient for that). Many of the popular altcoins are not using Proof of Work either, so banding together to 51% attack them using GPUs would be moot. Ethereum will be moving to Proof of Stake later this year (maybe) as well.

Wassimo 5 years ago | |

It would have to be starting with smaller coins with less marketcap that are easier to mine. Since some people would be scared of running a miner the miner used to start the attack would have to be open source and auditable for people to trust running the program.

jordansmith 5 years ago |

All my gaming friends made more money off Bitcoin than the cost of a GPU. We aren’t mad at all

yamellasmallela 5 years ago |

No one uses GPUs to mine bitcoin and soon Ethereum won't even use proof of work mining algorithms. Crypto isn't really causing the shortage of cards its a mix of scalpers intentionally buying every single GPU on the market for a profit and low supply due to the pandemic. It will straighten out soon enough.

Scalpers are the ones who should be targeted. Put your effort into organizing mass reporting, takedowns of their listings, fake bids, etc. There is a lot you can do.

stephensongr 5 years ago |

Great idea! Perfect way to get rid of all the shitcoinery once and for all! And rest assured that by the time they finally got to the final boss battle ie. Bitcoin, they will have understood that that not only is destroying Bitcoin actually impossible, but in fact the very last thing that they really want to do.

nimvlaj30 5 years ago |

Why hasn't everyone banded against cryptocurrency, considering how proof-of-work is heating the world, and most/all cryptocoins have more in common with a pyramid scheme than with anything of any value?

Wassimo 5 years ago | |

Exactly more people should have banded together to fight climate change and the pyramid scheme. I think to start gamers would have the most power to disrupt cryptocurrencies because they can leave there computers on and not necessarily mining all the time. Only when needed some kind of program could run when its time to attack. As the news pickup the grassroots movement then more people would join.

dalmo3 5 years ago |

That would mean they'd have to... Stop playing video games?

Wassimo 5 years ago | |

The software wouldn't necessarily run when the computer is in use. During Idle time would be an option.

Graffur 5 years ago |

Do some research on non PoW cryptocurrencies

speedgoose 5 years ago | |

It would be great if people could start using non proof of work crypto currencies.

cblconfederate 5 years ago |

Maybe they don't want to?