Trump Impeachment Looks like a Bitcoin 51% Attack

Even the most well-designed, cleverly thought-out system will always be as vulnerable as the individuals who compose it.

I was speaking with my wife about politics, and she was catching me up on Trump and his acquitted impeachment charges. Suddenly it struck me, this sounded very much like a 51% attack in the cryptocurrency world!

Let me explain…

Reviewing Trump’s Impeachment

Here are the highlights of the impeachment charges in case you missed them as stated by BBC:

Firstly, he’s accused of seeking help from Ukraine’s government to help himself get re-elected this November. He’s alleged to have held back millions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine and dangled a proposed White House meeting with Ukraine’s president, both as bargaining chips.

In exchange, witnesses say he wanted Ukraine to publicly announce an investigation into Joe Biden, the man who’s leading the Democratic race to challenge him in the election. Polls suggest Mr Biden would beat him if chosen as the Democratic candidate.

Secondly, after the White House refused to allow staff to testify at the first impeachment hearings last year, Democrats accused Mr Trump of obstructing Congress (the part of the US government that writes and brings in laws, and which was investigating him).

Here are the results of the impeachment charges as stated by the New York Times:

After five months of hearings, investigations and revelations about President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, a divided United States Senate acquitted him on Wednesday of charges that he abused his power and obstructed Congress to aid his own re-election, bringing an acrimonious [acrimonious is defined as angry and bitter.] impeachment trial to its expected end.

In a pair of votes whose outcome was never in doubt, the Senate fell well short of the two-thirds margin that would have been needed to remove the 45th president. The verdicts came down — after three weeks of debate — almost entirely along party lines, with every Democrat voting “guilty” on both charges and Republicans uniformly voting “not guilty” on the obstruction of Congress charge.

The New York Times also quoted Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader saying, “By refusing the facts — by refusing witnesses and documents — the Republican majority has placed a giant asterisk, the asterisk of a sham trial, next to the acquittal of President Trump, written in permanent ink.”

What does this have to do with Bitcoin?

The major vulnerability of Bitcoin has long been known to be a 51% attack. I defined a 51% attack in Decryptionary.com:

51% Attack is defined as a situation where more than half of the computer power running a blockchain are controlled by one person or one group of people with evil intentions. That person or group with the majority power can manipulate transactions in their favor.

In a 51% attack, the attackers might be able to:

• Prevent new transactions from being included in the blockchain. • Reverse transactions so they could spend the same money again and again, known as a double-spend.

You may be thrown by my use of the word, “evil” in that definition. So let me clarify myself.

Evil describes that which is destructive (to a greater or lesser degree) for the long-term survival of the group.

Whether we’re dealing with Bitcoin, the USA, or a personal relationship, when more than half of the voting power forces the group in the direction of non-survival, you’ve got a 51% attack.

Some will argue that the end justifies the means. In other words, if the final goal is valuable enough, any way of attaining it is acceptable.

Case in point: Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz said this during Trump’s impeachment trial: “If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”

And this brings me to my premise:

Even the most well-designed, cleverly thought-out system will always be as vulnerable as the individuals who comprise it.

Everything from Bitcoin and Ethereum to the US government, are only as strong as the individuals who are involved.

These systems were designed by clever people expecting logical reasoning by the users. Yet these same systems are most vulnerable to those who would make illogical decisions based on short-sighted personal gain or vanity.

I am a firm believer that we can have a better system, both for crypto and our nation. But I don’t think we’ll get there through clever engineers designing a better mousetrap.

I believe we can have a better system by improving one individual at a time.

You and I both make up the group which allowed this 51% attack on our nation. What sort of positive, constructive actions can we take to improve our local circumstances?

Might consistent positive influence by you, an individual, positively influence your group, which affects further individuals and groups, and by that reason eventually influence whole cities and even our nation?

You never know how much good you can do.

If you want ideas as to how to improve your life or your circumstances, send me a private message over Twitter. I’d be happy to shoot over some thoughts.

If you liked this story, please hit the 👏 a few times. It’s the same as “liking” and means you recommend this article to others.

Suggested clap system:

1. Clap once to acknowledge an article you’ve read 📖
2. Clap five times for an article you liked 👍
3. Clap ten times for an article you loved ❤️