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Man Behind Week-Long Bitcoin Attacks Reveals Himself
An anonymous reader writes: A Russian man that calls himself "Alister Maclin" has been disrupting the Bitcoin network for over a week, creating duplicate transactions, and annoying users. According to Bitcoin experts, the attack was not dangerous and is the equivalent of "spam" on the Bitcoin blockchain servers, known in the industry as a "malleability attack," creating duplicate transactions, but not affecting Bitcoin funds. Maclin recently gave an interview to Vice.
Bitcoin evolve and update it's codebase to adapt those kind of scenarios. Remember it's an experimental currency, so far so good!
So the guy runs some stress testing tool against bitcoin machines/network and that makes him a hacker? That's quite a hyperbole.
It is important that transactions not go through any kind of centralized system, but this sort of attack shows that you can't simply make the entire network a virtual centralized system. We need a replacement system that eliminates the need for a single physical or virtual store.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Where do you see the term "hacker" being used? It does not appear in the summary or in either of the forward articles. Maybe your brain got hacked?
Are you telling me that a single person can disrupt this global network of money transaction using a 100-line script?
that's.. scary
cookies was hacking, now this sheesh.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Nobody cares.
This has been up for nearly 45 minutes with no down-mod. You must have struck a chord.
Probably when it isn't the only currency of its kind.
I guess you were not there when it got way more drastic drop in price. In 2011 we got a 90% drop in price... http://arstechnica.com/tech-po... That said, the experimental currency still worth more than 200 times the USD; itself a pretty string currency compared to the hundreds other currency on the planet.
This isn't even coherent. What?
Sure, if you're comparing 1 USD to 1 BTC, but usually it's more than just that that contributes to the desirability of a currency.
Or was it the Dark Crusader, playing the Puppet on a Chain, hoping for a Golden Rendezvous?
Either way, I'm certain Fear is the Key.
It's not specific to Slavia. Look at any minecraft server. Heck, look at any MMO game at all. There are jerks everywhere.
Someone better call the CEO of Bitcoin.
It's a "commodity", at least per the IRS and CFTC. Not that it matters for this instance...CNBC talks about the recent rule changes. I'm wondering if his attack could be considered something serious now, at least legally. If it can be proven he caused real monetary damages...
Of course he's Russian, so it doesn't really matter. At least it doesn't matter until he manages to screw up some buddy's of Putin, and then "legal repercussions" will be the least of his worries.
Bitcoin is designed to make it very difficult to successfully get fake transactions into the accepted blockchain except on a very short and soon corrected basis - even if you had huge amounts of hashing power which this individual did not. An entire week of lame attempts? Boring.
Viva Chavez and his minion!
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
There was never any particular reason for parity between bitcoin and dollars, so comparing 1 BTC to 1 USD is meaningless. Following your logic, the Krugerrand is currently worth around 1100 times the USD, making that a pretty strong currency too. Should we all be using those?
"Alister Maclin"? I love his books! "The Gums of Navarone", "Ice Station Zorba" and who can forget "Where Beagles Dare"?
Yeah, so far so good as long as you don't mind that BitCoin has lost 75 percent of its value in the last 22 months.
And before it has gained 400% in a few months, and before...
Seems that "a roomful of pigeons picking furiosly with their beaks at numpads" is the best approximation of BTCs value over time.
There would be riots if that was happening in a real currency market.
Such a thing in a real currency market would require everyone involved being on high doses of LSD.
More seriously:
- BTCs as a longterm storage currency isn't that much useful (unless you're a big gambler). Just don't store any longterm savings into this.
- bitcoin, the protocol, with all the technologies involved (blockchain) and thus all the software developed (as mentioned by parent poster) are all very useful and very well designed.
It already works today, and solves whole classes of problem (the simplest: it solves the problem of pushing around values (BTCs) without needing a central authority but instead distributing the control accross the whole network. The kind of simplification that SEPA brought to sending currency around between european banks, bitcoin protocol brings it to the world of online payment. Except at the scale of hours instead of days).
Instead of having companies working as single points of failure (Paypal, or the duopoly Visa / Mastercard) and requiring both side of the transaction (customer and merchant) being clients at the same company, bitcoin enables each side of a transaction to pick any solution of their liking no matter which, as long as both end point follow the bitcoin protocol. Thus there's no "bitcoin company inc." that a government could shut down, and no matter which payment processor a merchant has chosen, a client doesn't need to get bitcoin from the same place.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I guess 20-30 years would be enough to prove that it' a viable currency in the long term.
even if BTC as a currency never gets any useful due to exchange rate instabilities,
bitcoin the protocole is already extremely useful.
(absence of a central authority being instead distributed across the whole network, and thus freedom to chose any provider for both ends (customer and merchant) of a transaction - both don't need to have accounts at PayPal, or at the Visa / MasterCard duopoly, etc.)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
bitcoin is also a network protocol (designed to shift around values using blockchain technology).
TFA's attacks are mainly attacks on the protocol. (i.e.: he didn't try to steal BTCs currency/commodity, he tried to wreak havoc the blockchain. The bitcoin network handled that quite well).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Bitcoin is designed to make it very difficult to successfully get fake transactions into the accepted blockchain except on a very short and soon corrected basis - even if you had huge amounts of hashing power which this individual did not. An entire week of lame attempts? Boring.
Which is exycatly why bitcoin, the piece of software and its protocol, together with the underlying blockchain technology, are very useful *as of today*, despite the fact that BTC currency seems to have a complete random value.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
That was not the first US fiat currency.
Look in to the Greenbacks of the civil war or the Pennsylvania Pound (which some say was the real cause of the American Revolution).
Sure if you're a bond villian or international drug trafficker.
Or a bond villian who moonlights as an international drug trafficker.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
Not in the slightest.
In fact that comment is somewhat embarrasing.
- Dan
"Did you see how cool he was? He didn't even really get pissed when you were fucking with em"
"Please, call me Winston"
What happens if I take 1 Bitcoin, and have 50,000 servers confirm it has been transferred to my other address (over a smallish time period, say less than 4 hours)
I own, but keep the verification computations a secret.
Then I spend the same Bitcoin to buy something real. Spending it twice.
The my 50,000 servers send it to their entire network, who each also verify it.
Surely I have a head start and will win the race to over 50% network confirmation?
But the other guy while knowing he lost out already shipped the item.