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Technology entrepreneur and investor Jeff Booth says he spent about 15,000 hours examining how Bitcoin could fail before becoming convinced of the network’s resilience. Booth said he tested potential attack scenarios involving governments, large miners and other participants rather than attempting to disrupt the Bitcoin network itself.
Booth is a founding partner at Bitcoin-focused venture firm Ego Death Capital and serves on the board of Core Scientific. He previously spent nearly two decades building technology company BuildDirect and is the author of The Price of Tomorrow.
Booth Tested Ways Bitcoin Could Fail
Booth said he initially questioned whether Bitcoin could remain decentralized and secure if governments or other powerful actors tried to undermine it. His research included running a Bitcoin node and analyzing potential attack scenarios involving consensus, mining, and network coordination. Booth said in an interview:
“ I spent about 15,000 hours trying to say, ‘How do I kill Bitcoin? What does that look like?’ ”
Booth said his work ultimately left him convinced that Bitcoin is currently decentralized and secure. Booth cited Bitcoin’s proof-of-work system and roughly 10-minute block target when discussing the network’s decentralized design.
Mining Centralization Remains a Concern
Booth does not argue that Bitcoin is free of risks. He specifically identified mining pools and mining centralization as areas that could create vulnerabilities if too much network activity becomes concentrated in the hands of a few operators.
He also acknowledged the concentration of Bitcoin nodes around the Bitcoin Core software implementation. These concerns focus on the distribution of infrastructure supporting Bitcoin rather than a demonstrated failure of its underlying consensus rules.
Research Changed Booth’s Investment Focus
Booth’s conclusions have since shaped his investment activity. Ego Death Capital invests in companies building products and services around Bitcoin, while Booth also serves as a director at Bitcoin miner and data center operator Core Scientific.
His 15,000-hour estimate is his own description of the time spent studying and stress-testing Bitcoin’s design. The claim therefore reflects Booth’s account of his research rather than an independently measured technical test of the network.
