Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

coindesk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 218 posts

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#31

Post by waterlesscloud »

nwh wrote: post #4

It's interesting to watch actually, submit a transaction to the network at the moment and there's a rogue node that will mess with the padding of the signatures and rebroadcast it faster than the original. It confuses the reference client into duplicate display, which is what Gox is relying on for the failed/success display. That they're winning races over the normal related transactions isn't that unnatural as the t…

There's also a story here about responsible disclosure.

People are making the case (and I tend to agree) that Gox should have contacted the other exchanges in private to discuss this problem before going public with it.

There's a very good chance this widespread attack is a direct result of Gox's announcement.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#32

Post by iblaine »

Didnt this same thing happen in April 2013? Somehow a DDOS attack drove the price from $250 to $75. Then it went back up. My guess is the same thing happens here. Two years ago people used to bitch when the price dipping below $15. Here it is at $650. A week is not complete unless someone claims to be witnessing the demise of bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#33

Post by zanny »

d0ugie wrote: post #27
fredsted wrote: post #3

This will make them only stronger. Bitcoin is not going anywhere.

Hmm, I see. Makes me wonder where bitcoin would be trading were its history not riddled with political/legal/fraudulent/technical/reputation snafus.

It wouldn't be trading at all, because it is paving new ground. If it wasn't, it would have no reason to exist, because a predecessor coin would exist and it would be unlikely that btc would have enough differing features to justify the risk transitioning to it.

The drama isn't because of bitcoin, it is because it is the first cryptocoin breaching new markets consistently. So as it treads new ground there will always be resistance.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#34

Post by glomph »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #31
nwh wrote: post #4

It's interesting to watch actually, submit a transaction to the network at the moment and there's a rogue node that will mess with the padding of the signatures and rebroadcast it faster than the original. It confuses the reference client into duplicate display, which is what Gox is relying on for the failed/success display. That they're winning races over the normal related transactions isn't that unnatural as the t…

There's also a story here about responsible disclosure. People are making the case (and I tend to agree) that Gox should have contacted the other exchanges in private to discuss this problem before going public with it. There's a very good chance this widespread attack is a direct result of Gox's announcement.

So first gox is criticised for blaming an old bug and now they are criticised for irresponsible disclosure. Funny old world.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#35

Post by kzrdude »

glomph wrote: post #34
waterlesscloud wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also a story here about responsible disclosure. People are making the case (and I tend to agree) that Gox should have contacted the other exchanges in private to discuss this problem before going public with it. There's a very good chance this widespread attack is a direct result of Gox's announcement.

So first gox is criticised for blaming an old bug and now they are criticised for irresponsible disclosure. Funny old world.

What needed responsible disclosure was the fact that Gox was clueless.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#36

Post by tedks »

watty wrote: post #17
JTon wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If financial gain is a side benefit. What do you think the primary benefit is?

Enjoyment. Some people just like to watch the world burn.

That's a very quotable statement, and it is indeed true -- some people are intelligent and sociopathic enough that they care about their own amusement more than anything else.

But sadism is very rare, in reality. Most robbers don't give the rubies they steal to the village children. Most galloping animals with four hooves are horses, not zebras.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#37

Post by glomph »

ayanb wrote: post #10
nwh wrote: post #4

It's interesting to watch actually, submit a transaction to the network at the moment and there's a rogue node that will mess with the padding of the signatures and rebroadcast it faster than the original. It confuses the reference client into duplicate display, which is what Gox is relying on for the failed/success display. That they're winning races over the normal related transactions isn't that unnatural as the t…

Also worth noting is the fact that the Bitcoin Price Index has been massively resilient to all the bad "news" thats been pouring in this month. It has been consistently hovering around the 670-700 mark.

Wasn't it 800 at the start of the month?

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#38

Post by watty »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #31
nwh wrote: post #4

It's interesting to watch actually, submit a transaction to the network at the moment and there's a rogue node that will mess with the padding of the signatures and rebroadcast it faster than the original. It confuses the reference client into duplicate display, which is what Gox is relying on for the failed/success display. That they're winning races over the normal related transactions isn't that unnatural as the t…

There's also a story here about responsible disclosure. People are making the case (and I tend to agree) that Gox should have contacted the other exchanges in private to discuss this problem before going public with it. There's a very good chance this widespread attack is a direct result of Gox's announcement.

It seems the general consensus believes it was MtGox's fault that they didn't handle the protocol correctly. The only way to spin this on MtGox is to blame their protocol problems on BitCoin itself.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#39

Post by deweerdt »

glomph wrote: post #37
ayanb wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also worth noting is the fact that the Bitcoin Price Index has been massively resilient to all the bad "news" thats been pouring in this month. It has been consistently hovering around the 670-700 mark.

Wasn't it 800 at the start of the month?

http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/bitstampUSD#rg60ztgSzm1g10zm...

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#40

Post by eterm »

ayanb wrote: post #10
nwh wrote: post #4

It's interesting to watch actually, submit a transaction to the network at the moment and there's a rogue node that will mess with the padding of the signatures and rebroadcast it faster than the original. It confuses the reference client into duplicate display, which is what Gox is relying on for the failed/success display. That they're winning races over the normal related transactions isn't that unnatural as the t…

Also worth noting is the fact that the Bitcoin Price Index has been massively resilient to all the bad "news" thats been pouring in this month. It has been consistently hovering around the 670-700 mark.

I can't find the article now, but there have been several good articles explaining the lack of gravity on bitcoin in general.

Basically, the price goes up quickly when new people are attracted to bitcoin and rush to buy. When the price dips however, because so much is bought for long term speculation, the price doesn't really dip much, as no one is incentivised to sell and hold out for when it gets better.

At some point the nerve of those holding out may crack, but if you read silly saurus2's post, its quite clear that many will hold out indefinitely on the belief or hope it will one day recover. So in this manner the bubble can deflate slowly. (If you call 10% in a day slow).

There are no settlement dates or ways to easily move money out (especially now) so a crash is prevented.

If a crash happens it'll probably happen before people realise it, but suddenly there just won't be anyone wanting to buy coins anymore.

But even that might not happen as people already invested into bitcoin use how wealthy they feel to buy bitcoins from each other. That can cycle for a long time before people realise there isn't new money in bitcoin.

If you had bought coins at 800-1000, why would you sell now? No one likes to cement a loss.

Those with the most reason to sell right now are the early adopters, but it's not actually clear how many of those coins are actually reachable.

Post reply on HN