SatoshiTrails on Nostr: You can't fake proof of work. That's not a principle. That's a mechanic. But most ...

You can't fake proof of work. That's not a principle. That's a mechanic.

But most people who talk about Bitcoin security are describing it like you describe a padlock. But a padlock stops you if you try. Proof of work stops you if you *could*.

Therefore, when someone says "miners secure the network," they're halfway there. Miners secure the network because securing it is cheaper than attacking it. That's it. That's the entire model.

Therefore when difficulty adjusts up, the cost of attacking rises with it. When price rises, hashrate follows. When hashrate rises, attacking gets proportionally more expensive. You can't out-engineer this. You can only out-spend it.

That's why Bitcoin's security isn't about trusting miners. It's about the fact that honest mining is the only profitable mining.