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Former COINBASE chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan thinks the US government could try to use tech giants like Apple and Google to steal crypto from citizens.
Srinivasan that world governments could be bankrupt in a decade and desperate to seize Bitcoin () to fund their operations.
He says the US government probably won’t have the capability to execute a 51% attack on Bitcoin. A 51% attack is when a miner or mining pool gains more than 50% of the network hash rate in order to rewrite the LEDGER and double spend prior transactions.
Srinivasan says China might be able to pull off a 51% attack, but notes that most mining happens outside Chinese borders now, making that outcome less likely.
The former Coinbase CTO the real “systemic risks” for crypto are Apple and Google.
“Instead, the federal government may try to compel Apple and Google (and other tech companies) to hunt for private keys on the servers, devices, and browsers they control. And to remit any stolen funds to a cash-hungry federal government.
This isn’t cyberterrorism, it’s cyberwar. It’s not some random hacker who manages to sneak out a file. It’s when the CEO of a company gives the lawful order to hack their customers. This is similar to what happened to 140 million Russians designated enemies of the state in early 2022 – every tech company turned on their former customers.”
Srinivasan notes that Apple chief executive Tim Cook might stand up to governments in such a scenario.
“He’s been good on end-to-end encryption and stood up to the establishment on the CSAM (child sexual abuse material) on-device scanning initiative, which was an obvious way to get the snout under the tent.”
In March, Srinivasan made waves in the crypto world after placing a million-dollar bet that Bitcoin would skyrocket to $1 million in just 90 days in response to failing banks and hyperinflation.
BTC was trading around $27,000 at the time of his bet and was trading at a similar price earlier this month when the former CTO decided to pay out $1.5 million to close his wager.
Srinivasan then claimed he just made the bet to raise “public alarm” about the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monetary policies.
