Can Bitcoin Be Secured Only by Transaction Fees? Two Researchers Sound Off - Ep.272

Once the block reward diminishes greatly, can Bitcoin be secured only by transaction fees? On Unchained, Bitcoin writer Vijay Boyapati and Ethereum Foundation’s Justin Drake debate the merits of Bitcoin’s security model, which Drake says will largely rely on transaction fees as soon as within 20-30 years, not in 100+ years. Highlights:

Justin’s and Vijay’s professional backgrounds

why Justin thinks Bitcoin cannot survive solely on fees

how Bitcoin is currently secured

what makes Bitcoin’s security subjective rather than binary

how much it would cost in dollars to 51% attack Bitcoin

what the Bitcoin network could do in response to a 51% attack

how to calculate Bitcoin’s security budget

why Bitcoin's price can’t go exponential forever

whether a “nuclear option” for Bitcoin miners could protect against a 51% attack

why nation-states could be either pro or anti-Bitcoin

why a Bitcoin Standard could be similar to the Gold Standard

how Bitcoin will change going forward, and why Vijay thinks transaction fees will increase

why Justin does not think transaction fees will increase enough to secure Bitcoin’s base layer

how Justin would fix Bitcoin’s security model -- and why he thinks the 21 million hard cap is a meme

why Vijay does not think Bitcoin’s security model will ever change -- especially the 21 million hard cap

what Justin thinks Ethereum is doing better than Bitcoin

why Vijay thinks Ethereum will fail

Take the annual Unchained survey! 

Hey all, the Unchained survey is out now, and we'd so appreciate it if you could give us your thoughts on how Unchained is doing and what we could do better. Plus, we've got some questions for you about Laura's upcoming book launch and the articles that she's already starting to write! Two lucky survey respondents will receive a BTC candle, which is scented with "satoshiwood, musk musk, tulip bulbs and finite minerals." 

Head to surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2021 to fill out the survey today! 

Subscribe to my Facebook Bulletin Newsletter!  

Hey all, I'm excited to announce that I'll be writing a Facebook Bulletin newsletter , joining the likes of Malcolm Gladwell, Malala Yousafzai and Adam Grant, among others. My first post is already up.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Digital Asset Research: https://www.digitalassetresearch.com/ 

Ledger: https://www.ledger.com/ 

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021 

Episode Links

Justin Drake

Twitter: https://twitter.com/drakefjustin

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drakefjustin/

Recent Unchained appearance:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/is-eth-on-its-way-to-becoming-ultra-sound-money-yes-says-justin-drake/ 

Vijay Boyapati

Twitter: https://twitter.com/real_vijay

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijayboyapati 

The Bullish Case for Bitcoin:

https://vijayboyapati.medium.com/the-bullish-case-for-bitcoin-6ecc8bdecc1 

Bitcoin’s Security Model

Hasu

https://ark-invest.com/podcast/bitcoins-security-model-with-hasu/

Dan Held

https://danhedl.medium.com/bitcoins-security-is-fine-93391d9b61a8 

Nic Carter

https://medium.com/@nic__carter/bitcoin-bites-the-bullet-8005a2a62d29

https://www.docdroid.net/C7uTY1R/mit-expo-slides-nic-carter-pdf#page=12

Paul Sztorc

https://www.truthcoin.info/blog/security-budget/ 

Donal McIntyre

https://etherplan.com/2019/05/17/why-the-bitcoin-fee-model-will-work/7587/

Phil Geiger

https://unchained-capital.com/blog/21-million-is-non-negotiable/ 

Jordan McKinney

https://medium.com/coinmonks/bitcoin-security-a-negative-exponential-95e78b6b575

https://medium.com/coinmonks/bitcoin-security-in-one-chart-694ee3ed8c2d 

Lyn Alden

https://www.lynalden.com/bitcoin-security-modeling/ 

Princeton

https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~arvindn/publications/mining_CCS.pdf 

Doomsday economics of PoW

https://www.bis.org/publ/work765.pdf 

Basic Info

How BTC fees work

https://river.com/learn/how-bitcoin-fees-work/

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Miner_fees 

What will happen when all BTCs are mined?

Decrypt: https://decrypt.co/33124/what-will-happen-to-bitcoin-after-all-21-million-are-mined

River: https://river.com/learn/what-will-happen-after-all-bitcoin-mined/ 

Bitcoin Fees

https://studio.glassnode.com/metrics?a=BTC&category=&ema=0&m=fees.VolumeSum&mAvg=365&mMedian=0&modal=loginForm 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices