The only reason I might suggest considering this botnet premise is due to hardware mining.
ASICs are pretty much the norm for mining now, and near as I can tell, there hasn't been much discussion regarding all the custom hardware floating around lately.
"Bitcoin is a cryptographic botnet"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7165893Possibly worth discussing, since it's reactionary slant was directly provoked by OP's topic.
Seems to have gotten buried. Possible deliberate forum sliding?
http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-Technique-1-FORUM-SLIDING
The only reason I might suggest considering this botnet premise is due to hardware mining.
ASICs are pretty much the norm for mining now, and near as I can tell, there hasn't been much discussion regarding all the custom hardware floating around lately.