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Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

coindesk.com

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Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#61

Post by mandalar12 »

pera wrote: post #52
zacinbusiness wrote: post #7

I've not bought in to Bitcoin yet. It just seems like a massive, world-wide scam to me. I'm not saying that it is a scam, I'm just saying that Bitcoin is something that I don't really understand, and so I don't entirely trust it. That said, this event is extremely encouraging. Not only is the security and the viability of the currency being tested. But more importantly, the communication and cooperation between the m…

> I'm just saying that Bitcoin is something that I don't really understand, and so I don't entirely trust it. Then read the paper! :) it's not complicated and it's pretty short. btw do you understand how the banking system works?

I second this, the original paper is quiet clear and short : https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#62

Post by pjc50 »

eterm wrote: post #40
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.

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 po…

Also worth noting: you can't buy bitcoins on margin. So no margin calls to suddenly detonate the market.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#63

Post by mrkickling »

hayksaakian wrote: post #51
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.

part of the reason is that bit coin does not depend on any banks if you have 100 btc in an offline wallet, you will still have it tomorrow, despite whatever bugs/attacks hit the exchanges. imagine if your bank was hacked, many people would literally be removed of their money. With cryptocoins, you have the advantages of keeping dollars under your mattress while still bring able to spend them anywhere that accepts the…

In what way is that different from fiat money? You can keep fiat money in your mattress and spend it anywhere that accepts them. If you have $100 in a mattress (offline) then you would still have it tomorrow. The problem is that the moneys value may change tomorrow, especially if we are talking about bitcoin.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#64

Post by mrkickling »

akkartik wrote: post #56
hayksaakian wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

part of the reason is that bit coin does not depend on any banks if you have 100 btc in an offline wallet, you will still have it tomorrow, despite whatever bugs/attacks hit the exchanges. imagine if your bank was hacked, many people would literally be removed of their money. With cryptocoins, you have the advantages of keeping dollars under your mattress while still bring able to spend them anywhere that accepts the…

Is that really true? Could a botnet not conceivably make transactions out of your wallet? Doesn't the distributed ledger have tentacles reaching under your mattress?

http://learncryptography.com/51-attack/

I guess it would be possible.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#65

Post by pjc50 »

untog wrote: post #23
mark_l_watson wrote: post #21

I have no proof what so ever, this is just a conjecture: there are powerful government and private entities who profit from manipulating the current monetary system. I have to ask: is it unreasonable that state actors would try to crash Bitcoin out of self interest?

is it unreasonable that state actors would try to crash Bitcoin out of self interest? Is it unreasonable? No. Is there any evidence to suggest it? No.

There was an article going around just the other day alleging that GCHQ were DDOSing the QuakeNet and Freenet IRC systems. Not the same, but a similar kind of thing.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#66

Post by [deleted] »

thisiswrong wrote: post #60
eterm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 po…

Wow this makes a lot of sense. I personally believe that this is yet again another one of BTC's large dips that will eventually recover onto it's upwards path. But then if people panic and see how hard it is to get back into fiat from BTC won't they just go into relatively stable altcoins instead? For example DOGE is skyrocketing as we speak and it's USD price was totally unaffected by BTC's recent plummet. http://co…

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#68

Post by SomeoneWeird »

mrkickling wrote: post #64
akkartik wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really true? Could a botnet not conceivably make transactions out of your wallet? Doesn't the distributed ledger have tentacles reaching under your mattress?

http://learncryptography.com/51-attack/ I guess it would be possible.

No, even if you successfully achieve a 51% attack, you can't spend coins from arbitrary wallets.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#69

Post by mcintyre1994 »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #21

I have no proof what so ever, this is just a conjecture: there are powerful government and private entities who profit from manipulating the current monetary system. I have to ask: is it unreasonable that state actors would try to crash Bitcoin out of self interest?

One issue with this is do we even have any evidence somebody can reliably short Bitcoin at the level a government would want to? It seems hard to believe a government could do more damage to Bitcoin than just declaring that it's banned in their country, anybody using it gets {significant penalty in their country}.

Re: Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’

#70

Post by lukifer »

bduerst wrote: post #58
brian_cloutier wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately in that respect Bitcoin is a bit of a one-trick pony. It relies on the honesty of a plurality of the network hash-strength. Systems which use the bitcoin mechanic need a lot of adoption before they become trustworthy.

Not only that, but the bitcoins themselves need solid liquidity before becoming a feasible currency. That's impossible with the impending cap. Right now, bitcoins are treated like digital gold. People hoard them and treat them like investment assets. And for the same reason the world's major currencies unlinked from gold, bitcoins also exhibits recessionary behavior. (bad news for a currency)

I'm unconvinced that deflation is a problem. The buyer's incentive to hoard is mathematically equal to the seller's incentive to acquire; as with all pricing, buyer and seller would eventually meet in the middle.

The greatest significant bit for spending is stability/volatility. If BTC accumulated value at a steady 3% per year, many would still spend it (especially if vendors offered a 5% pay-with-BTC discount). The problem is that no one knows if BTC's value a year from now will be 10%, or 1000%.

Crypto-currency will either find a stable equilibrium over the coming years/decades, or it won't.

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