re: Predict the 12/31/2014 bitcoin price (plus 2013 year in review)

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" but may have more than a few weak spots if the government wants to become an "insider."

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Wiki just provided some info in the OT thread about these "weak" spots.

From reading his explanation, a government could not exploit the weak points to the extent that it could nullify all of the btc transactions that have already taken place by others or even take ownership of bitcoins owned by someone else.

But what a 51% miner could do tells me if the government ever perceives btc as a threat to it, that government can foul up the process enough to make it impractical for btc to continue for most users:

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-Reverse transactions that he sends while he's in control. This has the potential to double-spend transactions that previously had already been seen in the block chain.

-Prevent some or all transactions from gaining any confirmations

-Prevent some or all other miners from mining any valid blocks

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So the government could just start double spending some of the bitcoins it has confiscated or mined on its own and it can prevent future mining by other miners.

That sounds like a fatal control over bitcoin for a well motivated and well funded entity.