[Cryptography] I am not against good cryptocurrencies. I just don't think you can build one with a block chain protocol.

[Greg]

> On Jan 2, 2021, at 3:30 PM, Karl <gmkarl at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>> Also, proof of work is the stupidest idea ever.
>> 
>> Why do you think it’s stupid, Ben?
> 
> I'm not Ben, but, doesn't proof of work produce
> exponentially-increasing economic pressure for people to break leading
> cryptographic primitives, and to not publicize their research, as
> their financial rewards disappear if they do?

Proof-of-work is a decentralized consensus protocol.

The choice of cryptographic primitives is a wholly separate, unrelated matter.

Any system that gains in value incentivizes attacks on it.

Whether the attackers are white hats or black hats is also a totally separate, unrelated matter, having nothing to do with PoW.

FWIW, any system of sufficient popularity will have a mixture of white hats and black hats attacking it.

Cheers,
Greg