If they wanted to torpedo the price, get routed around, and lose all that capital investment in 16nm mining fabrication. Bitcoin was designed so that attacking the network will be less profitable than joining it.<p>But I can imagine scenarios where its game theory might not hold - because &quot;profitable&quot; is measured in bitcoins. For example, Bitcoin might not be suitable for use as a reserve currency if doing so would create &quot;political profit&quot; for destablising bitcoin that might exceed the monetary cost.