Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency, is often criticized for the lack of economic incentives behind its security model. Ethereum Foundation’s Justin Drake, who ironically changed his X bio to “Bitcoin security researcher,” is sure that even a rally to $10 million per BTC will not make things better — and proposes his eccentric solutions.
Bitcoin (BTC) will be too cheap to attack soon, EF researcher says
Bitcoin’s (BTC) security model for its proof of work is permanently in danger — and things are only getting worse. Now, Bitcoin (BTC) fees have hit a 13-year low (30d average, BTC-denominated) which brings network security one step closer to being irrational economically.
The security of Bitcoin PoW is a ticking time bomb.
Bitcoin fees are at a 13-year low—less than 10 BTC/day. Despite 2016, 2020, 2024 halvings, miner revenue from fees is at a 9-year low—just 1%.
low fees → low security budget → low security
Bitcoin’s security model is… pic.twitter.com/tAnP0tEt3Q
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) May 29, 2025
Such calculations were shared by Justin Drake, researcher at Ethereum Foundation. He also stresses that only 1% of fees contribute to BTC’s security budget.
As such, since Coinbase miner rewards lose 50% every four years, Bitcoin (BTC) is too vulnerable to 51% attacks in terms of economic reasons.
Namely, even if the Bitcoin (BTC) price hits $10 million per coin, $20 billion will be enough to run permanent 51% attacks on the network.
L2 solutions and BitVM options cannot help here since they are also vulnerable to 51% attacks and can only trigger short-lived fee spikes.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) security problem has only two solutions
Drake proposes only two steps to protect the security of the Bitcoin (BTC) network. First, it should implement tail issuance, dropping the 21-million-coin limit. It will allow the network to increase economic motivation for network participants to keep it secure.
Also, Bitcoin (BTC) can migrate to proof of stake (PoS) and completely rewrite its security design by BTC staking for network operators.
As covered by U.Today previously, Cyber Capital CIO Justin Bons is another adamant critic of Bitcoin (BTC) security.
It foresees that Bitcoin (BTC) will be vulnerable to attacks described by Justin Drake as soon as in the next four-year cycle.
