Excellent point. I was going by a scenario in which the Feds operated by a more normal channel, using traditional banking leverage points.
They could clearly hit it both ways as well. Come up with their own standard, regulate bitcoin practically out of existence, and simultaneously attack in a malicious manner.
One thing is certain, the US Government didn't really care whether AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, Google, Yahoo or MSN came out on top in the search wars (competing technology), but they are going to intensely care about who wins the digital monetary system competition that has just begun. We have more money, banking and finance laws on the books than any other sort, because of their desire to control money (which controls everything else).
They could clearly hit it both ways as well. Come up with their own standard, regulate bitcoin practically out of existence, and simultaneously attack in a malicious manner.
One thing is certain, the US Government didn't really care whether AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, Google, Yahoo or MSN came out on top in the search wars (competing technology), but they are going to intensely care about who wins the digital monetary system competition that has just begun. We have more money, banking and finance laws on the books than any other sort, because of their desire to control money (which controls everything else).