The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
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The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
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Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#2There's already a proposal floating around on the dev list to introduce a new address type, P2SH^2, which would allow the relevant data fields currently being used to stuff the info discussed in the article to become hashes. This would have the effect that if you wanted to stuff arbitrary data, you'd be limited to finding hash collisions. See the thread here: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=307056...
I've been lurking on the bitcoin-dev list for a while to observe how they handle issues just like this. I'm confident that these problems will be transient.
Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#3I would think the solution to this problem is to somehow prove to the blockchain that the address was indeed produced by the SHA256 RIPEMD160 process. I would think mathematically there is some way to do this without revealing what it was you hashed.
I mean, you can verify that you are who you say you are simply by using your private key to sign a message; I would think a comparable process would work for this.
EDIT: Facepalm; you're hashing the public key. You don't need to hide that. See my comment below.
Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#4I think there is a lot of sensationalism in the way this issue has been aproached. To inject data into the blockchain in this way is comparable (although not identical) to writing the same 'evil urls' in a dollar bill with a pen, and then passing it around.
It is a problem that exists in a different layer than the currency, even if it is to some degree 'passed on' through the currency. Likewise, the solution (imho) lies in a different layer: detect a cp link in the blockchain? Great, take down the link, problem solved.
Just as it is not the fault of TCP/IP, or its 'downfall', that it is able to transmit 'evil data', it is not Bitcoin's fault what vandals sometimes write on it.
Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#5There's already a proposal floating around on the dev list to introduce a new address type, P2SH^2, which would allow the relevant data fields currently being used to stuff the info discussed in the article to become hashes. This would have the effect that if you wanted to stuff arbitrary data, you'd be limited to finding hash collisions. See the thread here: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=3070…
While such a scheme might solve this particular method of storing data, it won't make the general problem go away.
For instance, if I want to publish an 'n' byte message, I could generate 'n' wallets, each having as their final byte of their fingerprint the n'th byte of my message. Constructing 'n' such wallets will require on average "256*n/2" units of work---quite small, all things considered. I can then transfer a single bitcoin to each wallet in turn, forming a linked list of the bytes in my message. Even better, I also get my coin back at the end.
Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#6There's already a proposal floating around on the dev list to introduce a new address type, P2SH^2, which would allow the relevant data fields currently being used to stuff the info discussed in the article to become hashes. This would have the effect that if you wanted to stuff arbitrary data, you'd be limited to finding hash collisions. See the thread here: http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=3070…
It doesn't seem like hashing the data fields reduces the problem to finding collisions. Say I hash 2 values. I can distribute these and say H1 corresponds to a '1', and H2 corresponds to '0'. Now, I can store 1 bit of arbitrary data per transaction. Of course, I can increase the amount of data per transaction by exponentially increasing my initial work (and the size of the lookup table). But given that transactions are cheep, I would not need to compute the complete rainbow table to make this practical, and you only need to do the hashing once.
Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#7I think there is a lot of sensationalism in the way this issue has been aproached. To inject data into the blockchain in this way is comparable (although not identical) to writing the same 'evil urls' in a dollar bill with a pen, and then passing it around. It is a problem that exists in a different layer than the currency, even if it is to some degree 'passed on' through the currency. Likewise, the solution (imho) l…
While you likely have a point that this is being sensationalised, the money analogy isn't quite accurate.
The problem is that such "evil" messages can be broadcast globally without the ability to remove them. A dollar bill with a message on it can be taken out of circulation; the bitcoin blockchain can't be reset without major chaos ensuing.
Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#8I would think the solution to this problem is to somehow prove to the blockchain that the address was indeed produced by the SHA256 RIPEMD160 process. I would think mathematically there is some way to do this without revealing what it was you hashed. I mean, you can verify that you are who you say you are simply by using your private key to sign a message; I would think a comparable process would work for this. EDIT:…
Two points.
First, crypto is hard. Unless a system is proven to have a certain property, assume the worst case scenario for your system.
Second, SHA256, RIPEMD160 are hashes. By definition (of an ideal hashing algorithm), every output can be generated with the same probability, and changing a single bit of the input will have a 50% chance of changing a given output bit.
Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#9This will neither bring bitcoin down or change it forever.
Any information contained in those bytes is just that: information. What can you say in 20 bytes that can have permanent, material damage to human beings?
A wonderfully sensationalist title, but really nothing to back it up.
Re: The Flaw that May Bring Down Bitcoin or Change it Forever
#10I would think the solution to this problem is to somehow prove to the blockchain that the address was indeed produced by the SHA256 RIPEMD160 process. I would think mathematically there is some way to do this without revealing what it was you hashed. I mean, you can verify that you are who you say you are simply by using your private key to sign a message; I would think a comparable process would work for this. EDIT:…