Every time I hear or read something about a possible 51% attack on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin SV it’s always about the expense per hour. Although that is the main area of concentration by most people what the majority of people seem to be missing is what I like to call Attack Premium.
Lets look at the king, Bitcoin:
While it is certainly the most secure blockchain as it’s Hash Rate is the highest and the % of Nicehash is the lowest at 0.139% lets look at its current Attack Premium.
The cost of a 51% attack on Bitcoin is currently $2,290,000. With its current price of $44,670 and 6.25 Bitcoin being mined every 10 minutes the value of all new Bitcoin coming to market in an hour is $1,675,125. With that said Bitcoin’s Attack Premium is 37%, meaning it costs 37% more per hour to gain control of the blockchain than the value of Bitcoin being created.
That’s not a business model most people would want to undertake. Imagine opening a business knowing you’ll be running at a loss every hour, and that loss is running at a rate of 37% of your cash.
Now lets look at Bitcoin Cash:
Bitcoin Cash is not nearly as expensive to gain control of in dollar terms, at just $22,511 but at current BCH prices the Attack Premium is 30%, not far off of Bitcoin.
Once again an entrepreneur wouldn’t be so inclined to open a business knowing they will be operating at a loss every hour while eating 30% of their cash.
Lets take a look at Bitcoin SV:
Bitcoin SV from a monetary standpoint is by far the cheapest to attack at just $8,433 per hour. It’s also has the lowest Attack Premium of the three at just 26%. The same scenario for an entrepreneur, running a business at a loss while eating 26% of its cash.
Obviously the Attack Premium shows anyone with a business perspective wouldn’t want to launch an attack, it’s a losing venture. With that said Bitcoin SV is certainly the most vulnerable followed by Bitcoin Cash and then Bitcoin.
I’ll end this article with the perspective that the Attack Premium should be watched more than the cost of the attack from a monetary perspective. If you watch this measure on a regular basis and see the percentage falling you may want to re-evaluate your investment in that crypto.
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