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>I’m surprised nobody has ever considered that Bitcoin is vulnerable to attacks. It's hard to know sometimes if one is being sarcastic on HN, but at any rate,

by Kranar 5y ago

>I’m surprised nobody has ever considered that Bitcoin is vulnerable to attacks. It's hard to know sometimes if one is being sarcastic on HN, but at any rate, Bitcoin is quite possibly the most scrutinized piece of technology ever developed and there is an enormous amount of research, both academic, corporate, and even just random independent individuals looking for any kind of fault with it whatsoever. Does that mean Bitcoin is infallible? Absolutely not, but to claim that nobody has considered that Bitcoin is vulnerable to attacks is just one of the most ridiculous claims I've read on HN, once again assuming you're not being sarcastic.

sudosysgen 5y ago
Bitcoin is a protocol. There could feasibly be a vulnerability in mining pool software that could enable fraud, for example.
- londons_explore 5y ago
  Fraud in a mining pool would only impact miners, and anyone who doesn't like it can use a fixed version of the mining pool software. Nobody would see major losses, and I don't imagine it would cause a lack of confidence in bitcoin.
  - rspeele 5y ago
    What about a scenario where a hack of widely used mining software enables an attacker to do a 51% attack? Miners would unknowingly aid the attacker by using the compromised software, and the attacker could execute a double spend. It would be caught after the fact, and the software patched, but money would be lost and confidence in Bitcoin's resistance to double spends would be shaken.
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    Because this would enable a 51% attack. If you could attack pool software for 51% of hashrate, you would be able to validate a fraudulent transaction and make millions of dollars out of it.
    - tromp 5y ago
      One of Bitcoin's essential properties is that the miners are not trusted to validate correctly. If a miner mines an invalid transaction, then the network will simply reject their block.
      - drekk 5y ago
        ... unless you impact 51% of the hash rate and effectively become "the network" for the purposes of reaching consensus

by Kranar 5y ago

sudosysgen 5y ago

Bitcoin is a protocol. There could feasibly be a vulnerability in mining pool software that could enable fraud, for example.

londons_explore 5y ago
Fraud in a mining pool would only impact miners, and anyone who doesn't like it can use a fixed version of the mining pool software. Nobody would see major losses, and I don't imagine it would cause a lack of confidence in bitcoin.
- rspeele 5y ago
  What about a scenario where a hack of widely used mining software enables an attacker to do a 51% attack? Miners would unknowingly aid the attacker by using the compromised software, and the attacker could execute a double spend. It would be caught after the fact, and the software patched, but money would be lost and confidence in Bitcoin's resistance to double spends would be shaken.
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  Because this would enable a 51% attack. If you could attack pool software for 51% of hashrate, you would be able to validate a fraudulent transaction and make millions of dollars out of it.
  - tromp 5y ago
    One of Bitcoin's essential properties is that the miners are not trusted to validate correctly. If a miner mines an invalid transaction, then the network will simply reject their block.
    - drekk 5y ago
      ... unless you impact 51% of the hash rate and effectively become "the network" for the purposes of reaching consensus