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Man Behind Week-Long Bitcoin Attacks Reveals Himself

Posted by samzenpus on from the out-of-the-shadows dept.

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.

4 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. What doesn't kill bitcoin will make it stronger by JcMorin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Bitcoin evolve and update it's codebase to adapt those kind of scenarios. Remember it's an experimental currency, so far so good!

    1. Re:What doesn't kill bitcoin will make it stronger by JcMorin · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Most fiat currency live about 100 years. Giving the fact that Bitcoin is a totally new concept (no central authority) I guess 20-30 years would be enough to prove that it' a viable currency in the long term.

  2. Re:The system isn't very good by LordLucless · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why? You realize this sort of attack was entirely expected, and that the system is engineered to withstand it, and did, trivially?

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  3. Re:TRIGGERED by sexconker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No, because he didn't disrupt the network. He just spammed the blockchain a bit. No transactions were forged, interrupted, or otherwise fucked with. Just a few extra megs to store the full blockchain for those running full nodes.