China is capable of destroying Bitcoin, new research suggests

In 2008, Bitcoin was envisioned by its pseudonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto as a trustless, decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system. 

Ten years and numerous crazy price jumps later, Bitcoin appears to have withstood the test of time. But is it really decentralized and thus resilient to attacks?

A new paper, signed by researchers from from Princeton University and Florida International University, suggests that Bitcoin is largely at the whim of one powerful entity: China. 

The paper (found via The Next Web), which hasn’t been peer reviewed yet, outlines numerous potential attacks and disruptions China could launch against Bitcoin. It also argues that China has both the means and motivation to potentially launch such attacks, and that it is already influencing the network in some ways. 

Bitcoin’s network is powered by miners, who employ a vast amount of computing power to process transactions and create new bitcoins in the process. The total amount of that power is…