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relative_iterator ago

Do you have any information to link to on the bitcoin hack? I'm trying to search for some stuff but not finding a complete article on what's happening.

k_digi ago

See op now. Cheers.

relative_iterator ago

Awesome, thank you!

Sorahzahd ago

There was no hack on Bitcoin - that's bullshit.

What's actually happening is that the transaction processing has slowed down some because there are some people out there sending shitloads of super tiny transactions (1/4 of one cent) to bog it up.

It's more like a very weak DDOS than a "hack", and can be worked around by anyone using Bitcoin by simply including a slightly larger transaction fee (little as 5 cents, compared to the like 2 cents or something it would suggest).

deathcomesilent ago

Coincidentally (or maybe not), several thousand of those micro-transactions have been sent as donations to voat's bitcoin address. I have no clue who stands to gain from tying voat supporters to this bitcoin attack, but that's the only working theory I have.

You can see their incoming transactions here on blockchain.info.

Each of these addresses seems to be unique, sending exactly .00001BTC(~1/5 cents each), in batches of a few hundred, all at the same exact time, down to the second. The most recent batch of transactions was at (2015-07-08) 15:26:16.

If you all want a (potentially) new corporate conspiracy to dig into, this on is untouched/unexplained as far as I know.

BeerBaron ago

That is pretty damn odd. How would one even 'dig' into this though, my understanding was that it was all anonymous specifically to prevent seeing who was giving money to who.

mark132012 ago

You can't see who used the Bitcoin, but you can follow where the Bitcoin was; that's why some tumble their coins before going on the black market.

BeerBaron ago

Ahh, I see. Thanks for the clearing that up.

relative_iterator ago

Ah Thank you! Who implements the transaction fee?

Also, why would increasing the fee stop the DDOS attack? Would it just make it cost more to continue the DDOS or is there a technical reason?

deathcomesilent ago

You nailed it. Increasing the price just ups the stakes until one side gives up.

Though it's clear this isn't a full throtle attack, my voat donation took 24 hours to go through, but it did go through.

Sorahzahd ago

The transaction fee is chosen by the user making the transaction - whether or not its enough to get your transaction through as fast as you like is just based on competition with other users that may have chosen a higher fee. Some Bitcoin wallet clients can calculate an optimal fee, but that's a suggestion rather than being enforced on the user.

Increasing the fee you use when sending a transaction doesn't stop the DDOS - it just means that your transaction will be prioritized for inclusion in a block (a list of verified transactions) over ones with a lower, or no, fee.

Since the DDOS transactions have no fee, they will come after transactions sent with non-zero fees.

relative_iterator ago

Thanks so much for this! Looks like there's still a lot more I need to learn about bitcoin.