It will be eleven years since the Bitcoin network was launched by Satoshi Nakamoto, in a few months. The digital cash system has really existed for this long is a grand achievement in itself. However, this is still an experiential project that could fail any moment.
This year, bitcoin price were forecasts of anywhere from $42,000 by the end of 2019 to $100,000 by the end of 2021. However, the originators of the cryptocurrency are concerned about just making sure the system doesn’t completely fall apart more than anything else. In the past, the Blockstream mathematician Andrew Poelstra has explained the same.
51% attacks are often brought up when it comes to ways in which Bitcoin could ultimately fail, however, changes related to mining decentralization are in progress. Threatening government crackdowns on Bitcoin are often spoken about by sceptics of the digital cash system. Though, some U.S. lawmakers seem assured that they wouldn’t be able to implement a Bitcoin ban.
So, what are the actual threats to Bitcoin?
Introducing a New Bug
Alike Maxwell, Fields does not see a 51% attack as the most likely way in which the Bitcoin venture could fail.
“My answer though is that the most likely sudden death scenario for a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is an accidental bug that gets introduced internal to the system,” said Fields during a recent talk at the 2019 MIT Media Lab Cryptoeconomic Systems Summit.
Fields’ concerns are logical, perceiving as critical bugs have been found in these sorts of systems in the past.
“There was a Bitcoin Cash bug that I found and disclosed and it kicked off a discussion about responsible disclosure in these systems and how to do it generally. I was a little smug for a few months until we were affected by a similar bug in Bitcoin Core which potentially would allow for money printing out of thin air,” Fields told during his talk.
While summing up his talk, Fields offered Bitcoin developers to accompany him for a ten-year plan to make it less likely that these sorts of bugs will find themselves in consensus-critical Bitcoin software again in the future.
