Back on the bitcoin theme, I really wondered at the time what the point of the rather sophisticated cyber-attack on bitcoin in the early weeks of this year was. The way I understand it is that the hackers were exploiting the transaction malleability problem (not that I fully understand what that is) to disrupt and confuse the blockchain (the definitive record of all transactions). It sounds like a very sophisticated hack - suggesting to me a team with a deep understanding of the inner workings of bitcoin. At one time the blockchain was seriously disrupted and forked into two different accounts of the transactions. But it survived and was repaired. Tough little cookie! But who would want to attack in this way? Technophobes (clever ones)? An intolerant state? The financial establishment? Or maybe coin-grabbing criminals? There's no word on the hackosphere about who was doing this as far as I know - which is interesting.
But what was the purpose of the attack? On the face of it it looks like theft - Shadowy trading site Silkroad 2 threw in the towel saying all their bitcoins had "gone" (pretty much). But now MtGox say much the same thing, citing a massive loss of coins. I wonder, was this cyber attack really grand-theft cyber, or was it a massive smokescreen to hide something really bad behind. The attack caused mass confusion and very nearly smashed the blockchain (the definitive immutable record of all bitcoin transactions that have ever occurred). This would have effectively killed bitcoin stone dead. I wonder why anyone would want to do that. On the face of it it makes little sense in theft-terms.
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