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MtGox had to code custom software to interact with the bitcoin network because of their size. They coded it wrong and allowed a bug that could (and did) wipe th

by Noxchi 13y ago

MtGox had to code custom software to interact with the bitcoin network because of their size. They coded it wrong and allowed a bug that could (and did) wipe them of their money. How is it the bitcoin network's fault?

johnchristopher 13y ago
Could bitcoin function as a viable replacement for today's money/monetary system without entities like MtGox ? Not functioning technically but functioning pragmatically. (honest question, I am an economic newbie)
the_mitsuhiko 13y ago
> How is it the bitcoin network's fault? Because the protocol is broken with regards to tracking transactions and that has been acknowledged. Even the official implementation got it wrong. It needs to be fixed because the workaround just does not scale.
- foxhill 13y ago
  it's not broken at all. tx hashes are essential for looking up txs in the block chain, and can be used as addresses because they immutable once they are in the block chain. before they are included in the blockchain, malleability aside, they aren't even necessarily valid (they could be double spend attempts, etc)
- moe 13y ago
  the workaround just does not scale. That is nonsense.
Keyframe 13y ago
Wait, so where are people's bitcoins and cash then? Lost in void?
- saalweachter 13y ago
  Taken by other people. That's the more interesting note, IMO. My understanding of the problem is that some people went to withdraw money and due to transaction malleability MtGox thought the transaction failed and resent repeatedly. But the first transaction didn't actually fail and they received their money multiple times. Whether this happened to a lot of people a little or a few people a lot, and whether they were accidental beneficiaries or intentional instigators will probably never be known. But some number of people received a share of that missing 750k BTC, and I don't recall a one of them posting a "Hey, MtGox just sent me more BTC than it should have" blogpost that ended up here, so that's pretty interesting. So the BTC aren't missing so much as illicitly redistributed.
  - Keyframe 13y ago
    That's what I thought. Something is afoul about it and it's not only incompetence. I think there was intent and malice here. It will be rather interesting to see where this goes.
  - danielweber 13y ago
    This is basic failure of accounting. If you are running a bank, you need to get things to match up exactly. In a lot of software engineering, Good Enough really is good enough. But a 5 cent discrepancy between what you actually have and what you thought you had need to be treated as seriously as a $5 million discrepancy.
    - hga 13y ago
      Bingo. While growing up in the '70s, my parents were often small businessmen, or running the business affairs of e.g. groups of doctors. More than one I can remember them spending quite a while tracking down a less than $1 discrepancy in the books they necessarily kept manually, for just that reason. (They moved to doing by computer in the '80s, of course.)

by Noxchi 13y ago

johnchristopher 13y ago

Could bitcoin function as a viable replacement for today's money/monetary system without entities like MtGox ? Not functioning technically but functioning pragmatically. (honest question, I am an economic newbie)

the_mitsuhiko 13y ago

> How is it the bitcoin network's fault? Because the protocol is broken with regards to tracking transactions and that has been acknowledged. Even the official implementation got it wrong. It needs to be fixed because the workaround just does not scale.

foxhill 13y ago
it's not broken at all. tx hashes are essential for looking up txs in the block chain, and can be used as addresses because they immutable once they are in the block chain. before they are included in the blockchain, malleability aside, they aren't even necessarily valid (they could be double spend attempts, etc)
moe 13y ago
the workaround just does not scale. That is nonsense.

Keyframe 13y ago

Wait, so where are people's bitcoins and cash then? Lost in void?

saalweachter 13y ago
Taken by other people. That's the more interesting note, IMO. My understanding of the problem is that some people went to withdraw money and due to transaction malleability MtGox thought the transaction failed and resent repeatedly. But the first transaction didn't actually fail and they received their money multiple times. Whether this happened to a lot of people a little or a few people a lot, and whether they were accidental beneficiaries or intentional instigators will probably never be known. But some number of people received a share of that missing 750k BTC, and I don't recall a one of them posting a "Hey, MtGox just sent me more BTC than it should have" blogpost that ended up here, so that's pretty interesting. So the BTC aren't missing so much as illicitly redistributed.
- Keyframe 13y ago
  That's what I thought. Something is afoul about it and it's not only incompetence. I think there was intent and malice here. It will be rather interesting to see where this goes.
- danielweber 13y ago
  This is basic failure of accounting. If you are running a bank, you need to get things to match up exactly. In a lot of software engineering, Good Enough really is good enough. But a 5 cent discrepancy between what you actually have and what you thought you had need to be treated as seriously as a $5 million discrepancy.
  - hga 13y ago
    Bingo. While growing up in the '70s, my parents were often small businessmen, or running the business affairs of e.g. groups of doctors. More than one I can remember them spending quite a while tracking down a less than $1 discrepancy in the books they necessarily kept manually, for just that reason. (They moved to doing by computer in the '80s, of course.)