Bitcoin Forum

Has the bitcoin system ever been hacked until now? Is there any security vulnerability in the Bitcoin system up to now?

It is safe as it gets, there is really nothing in the network other than spam transactions and used addresses that could be considered vulnerability.
Honest nodes provide all the security measures needed.

You should be far more concerned about how much you know about Bitcoin and how safely you behave. It is so much more probable that you make a mistake that will result in the loss of your Bitcoins then a technical issue.

We can't say that bitcoin is 100% because even though it says that it can't be hacked then there is still a chance of being stolen of our bitcoin like the previous hacks on exchangers and online wallet like blockchain, So i think that bitcoin is not 100% safe. There is no 100% safe on the internet.

Yes, I know that. There was even a little talk about the subject. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1738678

But is it possible that the protocol I am wondering about is hacking itself?

The bitcoin blockchain system itself is pretty safe against hacking, as it does not rely on any central authority to keep data safe from manipulation or spying. All transactions are visible, and the record of valid transactions is secured by the block confirmation system (mining). There are attack routes (most famous is the "50 percent" attack) but most of them are academical and do not pose a real risk.
I don't have a complete overview of bitcoin history, but I think that the "hard fork" of 2013 was probably the most critical event in that it caused transactions to be lost after they were thought to be confirmed.

However, there have always been cases where human mistakes or badly written software have caused loss (or theft) of bitcoins:

• Users might forget their password, accidentally format their hard disk etc.
• Wallet software on PCs might be vulnerable to trojan attack targeted at bitcoin users, revealing user's private kease to an attacker.
• Badly written wallet software might use not-so-random random number generators when creating private keys.
• Exchanges may be vulnerable, allowing attackers to manipulate their account balance within the exchange and then withdrawing bitcoins.
• Any business handling bitcoins might be hit by inside jobs, which can also involve hacking of computer systems to keep the theft undetected for some time.

Onkel Paul

You the whole blockchain i never heard that bitcoin was hack the whole blockchain but i heard that there are some traders before was hack and every years its happening but do not worry many people are supporting bitcoin if the price will going down due to the trading site was crash.. and bitcoin will be safe if you are saving your bitcoin in the good place..  and you increase your security 2 factor auth.

The bitcoin protocol has never been hacked and no funds have been stolen from the system, the problem is when 3rd parties dont secure the private keys to their customers bitcoins.  these are the hacks you have heard about over the last few years.

Yes exactly these protocols were great because its has a stealth character which cannot be hacked. Most of those problems like stolen funds were on their personal online wallet leaked with other users who became untrusted who betray their coleagues and get funds from them. Bitcoin itself is safe because its a digital form and it only became fear ot theat due to fiat cash convertion.

Bitcoin is safe. But not really 100% safe. Bitcoin AFAIK is vulnerable from DDOS attack. Other than that, i think theres nothing more. Also its up to the owner how he/she take care of his/her bitcoin. Keep in mind that no matter how safe is bitcoin if the owner is not careful with his/her bitcoin. Bitcoin is not safe. The owner should be responsible keeping their bitcoin.

It's safe enough such that I completely trust the protocol.  It's been adopted by the geekiest geeks you can imagine, and the CIA and all the other spy agencies know about it, and it's resisted hacking thus far.  So yeah, the real danger comes not from bitcoin itself, but the scumfucs who make up the community.  And said community is rife with thievery.

yes. someone managed to create 184 billion extra bitcoins before it was patched. this was back in the extreme early days when it was only satoshi and a couple of other people working on it. since then thousands of people have examined the code and come up with no serious flaws.

August 15, 2010
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=822.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=823.0

I think so that Bitcoin is safe. I never doubt the transactions done in every single day, I trust it. We can say it is very safe because of its security and of course also the proof shows publicly on the ledger. I never heard some kind of hacking...

Bitcoin is 100% if the owner take good care of his bitcoin. Aside from DDOS attack. Third party like exchangers that are vulnerable from hackers attacks could possibly loss your bitcoin. Also online wallets like blockchain.info and coinbase wallet is also not really safe to use. Better use electrum or mycelium wallet.

The bitcoin system is safe, but bitcoin users need to learn how to safely keep their coins so hackers won't steal it from them.
Bitcoin is money and if you don't safeguard your money, you just might lose it.

If you wondering whether or not bitcoin itself is a hacking tool or core wallet being some kind of trojan? some might say mining is a secret alien agenda trying to manipulate and control human's life in the future but it's all fiction and speculations. For someone to attack the network, they would need the most hashrate(computing power) and after the attack they will need to constantly compete with others to maintain their superiority but why would some one go all the way to reach a high level of computing power and have the upper hand wants to hurt the system since they can profit the most out of it if the system stays successful?

Any change or attempting to change anything in the source code requires consensus from many known developers and only after all voted then they can have access to it in github the open source community.

   I dont believe in 100 % safe. Nothing is that safe. I think bitcoin is safe enough for us to use it, there is many kinds of protection that someone can take. Blockchain network operate over 8 years now, and there hasnt been problems with it. I dont wish to think about hackers, there will be always scammers in every currency.

bitcoin is the safest currency in the world, no central office, no central database.
but its depending of our system too, our security too.
if we can't save our bitcoin at safe place, its easy to lost our bitcoin too.
its like we have bank at our wallet.

I don't find in bitcoin that it is hackable from one side because I searched already about to hack bitcoin network ( whether it is possible or not ) but I didn't found any thing that making atleast  small to think that bitcoin is hackable , Since many of the bitcoin services sites are hacked by the hackers but bitcoin wallets itself are not hacked by the any hackers , So Herr no need to think that whether bitcoin is hackable or not ?.
Simple do your job in bitcoin and making earning , it is much safe than bank money .

we cannot say that bitcoin is a hundred percent safe. mybe 98% perhaps. we all know that nothing is that safw these days. it has to be a small hole that can or might be entered by a some sort of a attack in a system.and as what they said, third parties or online wallets are more vulnerable and not as it safest form.

further, the owner must take good care of his or her account, all the private and public keys. dont lose it or else you may not be hacked or breached but you might lost all of your coins due to own negligence.

I think Bitcoin system is safe, online wallet and your pc storage offline wallet are not 100% safe. Its all depend on you managed it. I recommend to use offline wallet on your device not online wallet since its hackable. I dont know how but i agree there is no 100% safe on the internet.

i think bitcoin is really safe, i can not imagine if from the first time bitcoin was launch, mr. satoshi and his team don't think about security for bitcoin, what will happen in future. i am sure that the team will secure bitcoin so bitcoin user will be safe when they use bitcoin.

100% safe? no coin can be 100% safe. I am sure there are issues of bitcoin that are not discovered yet, and that people will explorer this or that vulnerabilities of the bitcoin.

I think the Bitcoin system is very safe and there is no doubt in it. The rumors of hacks are often of the exchanges that get hacked and they often do it to claim insurance. Bitcoin is no one due to. It's security op. It's is not only safe but it's duly secured. However if you put your address and password in one Bitcoin for double schemes, you are inviting hacks. I have been using Bitcoins now for quite a while, yet to face a issue with security.

The bitcoin  system as a whole the blockchain is safe and it cannot as such get hacked, yes there are few vulnerabilities but it's nothing to worry about. But if we tall about an isolated wallet or private it's safety depends on your computer it can be vulnerable to a malware.

A major advantage of open source is that everyone can analyze the code, identify errors, and propose improvements. Is it possible that something went unnoticed by all and some hackers can exploit it? It's possible! Is it likely? Do not.

On the surface the bitcoin seems safe but I am sure there will be problems here and there, and sometimes open the doors for hacking. Look at what happened to MtGox.

I agree with you, Bitcoin isn't 100% as any other currency isn't 100% safe too. It can have little gaps which malicious people could use to do something illegal and nasty, like steal money from others... The technology never stops, it can be used for the good (safe for us), but it can be used by evil too (hackers trying to steal us). But I'm sure the reward is good enough to take the risk when using Bitcoins.

I think Bitcoin is 100% safe if the user knows the Do and Donts related to bitcoins.  Never use an Online wallet to store majority of the coins and in desktop wallet keep your private key secure and never share it with anyone.  Should know the concept of public and private keys etc.  Once fully understood and implemented, Bitcoin is 200% safe and the best.

My god, you people are brilliant and have a way with words so rarely seen on the internet these days.  

All of this sounds like high school Spanish class for some reason.  

100%?  Never.  But it's close enough for government work.  OP, now that you have all the answers you're going to get, why don't you lock up this thread so as to keep the monkeys from masturbating all over each other.  Thank you.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the deal with MtGox is that the CEO basically ran off with all the money to Japan? There weren't any hacking as far as that goes


All major pools swore never to break 33% mining capacity so unless someone has quantum computing tech to overthrow entire mining pools the source code is not going to be changed


IMO the only unsafe aspect of Bitcoin is the price fluctuations, it's either a good thing or bad depending on who you ask.

Smart people are putting big money on bitcoin, that means they trust the system and they have already audited it. If they can do that then there is no reason not to trust the system, it could not be 100% safe but I believe it is very safe to use for online transactions.

We, as users of bitcoin is not only concern on the price increase but the whole system as well, it's an open source, so I don't think computer genius are not convince about it.

If I am going to analyze it now, bitcoin is 90% safe. The 10% remaining maybe goes in some issue regarding about the circumstances of bitcoin. Even most member said here that bitcoin is more safe than any banks, company, Paypal, or etc. But still it can be hack by a professional hacker. But I think it will only happen once in a blue moon.

Bitcoin is not 100% safe, it just uncover bugs. It's not easy to hack bitcoin, because bitcoin have active community and coder. If community think found bugs, they will release patch asap

This is speculation. The problem (or the genius, depending on how you look at it) with MtGox's claim was that it was nearly impossible for its users to know if they had in fact been hacked. And even if there were some form of staged attempt, the people who have the technology to make it look like a legitimate hacking are way ahead of the people who may have the technology to prove that it was a staged hack.

How it all happened was just too convenient.

In any programs there were really bugs developed and disadvantages, thou developers and users in some way can find solution. For me in terms of securing money and in terms of the transaction Ive used , it all went well so it fine for me. As long it secured my bitcoin ,I will keep on using it.

Bitcoin is a piece of code, and all of this is public. If any part of the code/protocol gets hacked, a patch can be applied to rectify the mistake. As one of the members already indicated, this happened once before and it was quickly picked up and rectified.

The incentive to hack the protocol would be stupid for two reasons :

~ If some major hack is identified, the price will collapse and the owner of these coins, will have received almost zero
   gain for his effort.
~ Any hacked coins can be nullified with a software change, like what happened with ETH. This is not ideal, but it is a
   possible solution for a problem like this.

Service built on top of Bitcoin are way more vulnerable than the protocol it self. Like we have seen with several Bitcoin exchanges being hacked.  

The decentralized nature of Bitcoin ensures that there's no single target to hack and the blockchain itself makes sure that no double spending is done but in all this we cannot conclude that it is hack proof as history tells us that some bug issues caused a single person to generate 184 million bitcoins in 2010 when the actual block reward was just 50. Even though the problem was fixed within 5 hours and that's the only major security flaw of Bitcoin since then I wouldn't say it's 100% safe as we are still in the testing phase and anything can happen.

The only scenarios I can think of right now that would make Bitcoin unsafe are worldwide electricity/internet failure and internet censorship. These are the only ways we could get Bitcoin banned and the price would fall to <10$ most probably. Otherwise it's safe, secure, anonymous. At least this is what we know.

bitcoin system is completely safe but not to extend of 100 % , you have to do something on your own to protect your money , follow all security major from cold \secure wallet with using very strong signature keys and password for a big amount of bitcoin .

you should not ask to yourself this question to choose bitcoin over fiat you should ask this question

is bitcoin more safer than my bank account? the answer is probably yes, therefore i see no reason to hold my funds in a ambiance where everything is controlled and full of fee and with more risk

Theres still no hacking incident on bitcoin network itself as of now and hopefuly it wont happen in the future,.Theres no 100% safe on this world even on bitcoin because there are still risk on lossing money but as of now it still good on making money on it and making it as an investment.

that is right , the question is more clear with your version ,
anything managed by third party never be a good thing include banking system ,
bitcoin gives you full access/full control over your money ,
it is form of freedom and best security system in your hands.

The bitcoin itself wasn't hacked and sort of can't be because of the strong encryption system. So, bitcoin is safe. Users, however, aren't. Some bank can be robbed and so someone's btc can be stolen. I know there are no bitcoin banks but I think you know what I mean when I say they can be stolen from somewhere, because it has already happened about a year ago with that japanese guy Ryota Fujii. However, even he didn't steal btc as I can see now, he just bought a lot using stolen money.

First of all nothing in this world is 100% safe

In 2011 NASA got hacked 13 time.!!
Even pentagon was hacked

See there's no single person who controls bitcoins it has a decentralised nature so there's no single target to hack           

I believe its safe not 100% but ya safer than any bank for online transactions
 

Yes I agree with you sir no one in this online world are 100% safe anything have possible to happen. 
Also bitcoin has possible to hack many site there are also hack by the hacker.  So you need to secure your all accounts because if you not do this it is possible to hack your account.

yes it much more safe than a bank account or a digital currency...... despite of any technical issue it depends on yours protection of your account..... and i think it is very difficult for any one to hack it.......

I think yes bitcoins is 100% safe because
bitcoin has about 50000x more computing power than the top 500 supercomputers combined  https://t.co/Uk8uMzQIgR
at least the supercomputers that be builded today
but i don't know about specific of supercomputers in the future.

No system is one hundred percent safe. This becomes even more difficult when it comes to something that works over the internet. However, there are ways to avoid problems when using this, I think that almost all problems could be avoided if users take the necessary security measures to protect their coins.

Bitcoin is safe. But not really 100% safe.
Keep in mind that no matter how safe is bitcoin if the owner is not careful with their bitcoin
Aside from DDOS attack. Third party like exchangers that are vulnerable from hackers attacks could possibly loss your bitcoin.
Any change or attempting to change anything in the source code requires consensus from many known developers and only after all voted then they can have access to it in github the open source community.

In my opinion there are still flaws with the system regarding most bitcoin wallets but if you are asking about bitcoin and not about bitcoin wallet I think Bitcoin is truly amazing and I think the word hack is not the right term but the word "control" and bitcoin can not be controled by anyone but it can process by everyone and that is the very great thing about bitcoin,

I think bitcoin is not safe. In a way that there are times that you will scam or even lose in a gambling site and it will cause you to invest more in gambling until all your btc was lost. Bitcoin is good in our daily life and we know that it is very helpful. The thing is you need to make some strategies that will help you to earn many btc. And at the same time you'll need to sure that it is safe.

Bitcoin is 100% SAFE!!! The only that that are unsafe are the sites that where you invested your bitcoin! rgarding gambling, it is the decision of the gamblers that lead them into bankruptcy. You should not put all the blame to bitcoin, it is always your choice where to invest and how to use your bitcoin!

As of now blockchain has never been hacked and I think it's pretty safe but not to the point that it is 100% safe . Yes if there is a flaw in the system it should be long discovered by now but I really think that there is no absolutely safe thing in this world so bitcoins blockchain is not immune to the possibilities . My advice is it should not be the thing to worry about instead we should worry about how we handle or manage our coins which has a higher chance of producing vulnerabilities .

Nothing is 100% safe.
With bitcoin, the biggest danger to its safety is the person who uses it.
But if you mean just the code that determines bitcoin mining, nobody has dicovered any flaws till now.
Of course that is no guaranty it won't happen in the future.

Something that is 100% safe simply doesn't exist, so bitcoin isn't fuly safe too. Exchangers, wallets are vulnerable to hacker attacks, bitcoin users could be victims of scam. But with responsible behaviour you can lower that risk and protect your coins so actualy the point isn't in bitcoin itself.

Developer ensures us that Bitcoin is safe but of course there is no 100% safe.  But i think blockchain has never been compromised.  With this I guess it is safe, much safer than the security of your credit card and visa card when it comes to transactions.

The system itself is %100 safe as long as you use it for what it is intended.

As long as you don't try to use btc system for the purchases where you need instant confirmations, it is ok.

The other insecure things are all depended on user mistakes. Unprotected and virus infected computers, forgotten passwords, irreversible transactions, exchange website thieveries... etc, those have nothing to do with the system.

Billions of USD are on the edge. If it were hackable, btc wouldnt be worth that much.

Only bitcoin trading platform and gambling platform have been hacked before not the bitcoin network.
There is no security vulnerability in bitcoin network and if you don't share or save your private key online you can store bitcoin in paper or hardware wallet without any fear of getting stolen.

Actually, bitcoin it's safe dude. I think our bitcoin it's safe or not depends on how it is used. As an example of a crime that makes bitcoin is not safe from thieves is because we use it to invest in hyip prone to fraud.
As with gambling you say, if the gambling sites that we use do not apply security then we can get stolen because of the burglarized. Thank you

Yes I almost agree with the post above.
Maybe not to 100%, and I think it's also not because of his Bitcoin, but rather to other support systems.
Surely there are vulnerabilities, but the main thing is that we must be careful, because we are the ones that could result in an error that comes from ourselves because not careful and careless.

there are no 100% safe security, maybe today it is 100% safe but who knows in the next few months the hacker find another way to hacked, but for me bitcoin system is very secure, heard some rumor how malware can hacked your password, but if you be careful and be smart it will be difficult for hacker to crack your account

For me its not 100% safe today. Your bitcoin wallets have a chance of hacking. The hackers will make a way in order to hack your wallet if they want , They will just crave for a wallet that have a massive amount of bitcoins. Just dont public the other infos of your wallet to be safe. But I am believing on the security of bitcoin.

No body don't know in what way it is going to hack till now it is very securely running because till now hackers din't find any solution for it. Even block chain technology has improved there security reason very highly. They provide all types of security option to the customers who are using it.

He is right bitcoin is safe but exchange are not, and this rule apply to site that let you store your coin like blockchain.info, all online storage are at certain risk, i would not hold my bitcoin there, but the original poster was talking about security hole i think of bitcoin technology, and this is more safe than anything else at the moment, secured by the law of physics

Nothing can be said to be 100% safe even bitcoin itself. Someone build the blockchain and I am sure the code to hack it as well is there and probably one of the reason Satoshi has decided to go into hiding because if he is around, there will be pressure whether this is really safe or not. But at the same time kudos to him because up till now no government to the best of my knowledge has been able to break through the system yet with all the advance technologies available to them, with that we can say 99% safe but not 100%...

so far, I know that using bitcoin was 100% safe. even if you use it for business. probably bitcoin is the target of some hackers, but, bitcoin development of the longer, the better. so, I guess, until the moment in bitcoin remain safe. even many new users who use bitcoin.

Bitcoin is 100% safe. Till now, it has not been hacked.But Mt.gox exchange was hacked and investors who stored their bitcoins in it almost lost all of their bitcoins.So, its always safe to store your bitcoins in a wallet in your system like electrum.But, it is said when quantum computing will be introduced almost after 20 years, it is said block chain system will not be safe and bitcoins will be hacked.Let us hope safety measures will be taken before such conditions.

Bitcoin has more 8 years alive and we did not see any big problems relating to this coin. Now many investors buy and hold it as safe assets . we are using it everyday and it brings us back more profits when we own it.

Even spam transactions cant really be classed as a problem,  any transaction that pays a fee and is accepted into a block is a legitimate transaction.  ;)

Bitcoin system is 100% safe now, but we dont know if someday they can hacked this system. But now this system has never been hacked before. Some accounts and site of exchanger have been hacked. I think it is Not because its not safe, it is because their security is not enough.

I dont think that theres a 100% safe thing on this world nonetheless it was made by a mathematical genius alien that consider as a god( imagination running)and calculates all possible vulnerability of the system he made  . I don't think real hacker would think or work to hack the system because they are using it themself.

A miner holding a calculation power of 51% may not approve smooth operations. In this way a behavior leads to double spending. Naturally, it removes the trust of bitcoine. No one will want to use a centralized system.

Yes, 51% attack is the biggest problem in the past. In general, I do not think anyone would want to do 51% of the attack. Because after the system crashes, the person will be lose money. But what happens when this process is done under state control? In other words, they can make such an attack when the big gamers want to remove the bitcoin from the market.

Can not an arrangement be made to remove this problem from bitcoin codes?

Yes, there is always a DDOS problem. But this is not a bitcoin problem. This is a problem for all TCP/IP systems. Any system that serves on the Internet can be affected by DDOS attacks.

There is no software in this world that is 100% safe. Simple as that.
Software from its nature poses risk of bugs and if there is no bugs someone will find new method that your code is vulnerable to.
Worry not, there are many talented programmers that are invested in bitcoin, so they will protect bitcoin in a matter of minutes/hours with patches :)

Mt. Gox was hacked, plus a few other exchanges that shaped the turn of how Bitcoin was purchased. Although it's rare to see wallets hacked with proper precaution, the main thing to worry about as a consumer is identity theft.

Be sure to keep up with security as it opens up, even second-factor authentication isn't always enough if the phone is tampered with. No matter the speculation always treat any wallet like it should be.

yeah, bitcoin is never been hacked. I mean bitcoin itself. while bitcoin in someone's address can be stolen. but it does not mean bitcoin, the system, can be hacked. but it does not mean that bitcoin is safe 100%. we do not know what the weakness of bitcoin.

All software may have bugs, so BTC may be have bugs but mostly the level and how to handle

i never heard about that and i still believe bitcoin security is very safe and not sure if there any vulnerability security I hope it never happen ;)

Bitcoin is 100% safe with the fact that no one controls it. For that reason, no one can take your coins from you if you store them well. If you use a paper wallet or cold wallet, then you are pretty much invulnerable to getting hacked. It is very safe, but you have to be smart about how you use it and how you keep it.

That can only happen if you are using a software wallet, hardware wallet or online wallet. If you are scared of getting hacked this way, just use a paper wallet. You shouldn't really be scared if you aren't downloading random things off the internet.

For the things I know about in bitcoin, the blockchain is proven and tested and one of the proof that it is very safe. Very visible to for the bitcoin community. Which can be said that all transaction and identity of the individuals are in good security, and it protect us against the hacker.

Blockchain technology and bitcoin itself could be hardly be hacked for now which i could say or most of us will say that we should not need to worry but i do also think that it could be possibly be hacked but i dont know on which way or how could it be hacked.If that thing would happen then bitcoin network would surely crash to the bottom.

Yeah, if we see it in general, nothing safe. But blockchain wallet consider safe as mostly hacked cases are on exchanges or gambling sites. If hackers want to crack wallet, more worth to targeting big funds.
I've ever heard about someone wallet hacked but because his own fault.
So, if you are aware and be careful, your bitcoin will be okay.

Blockchain is just a database, it is secured by the hash power of miners so as long as we will be having enough miners then there would be no need to worry about the security of blockchain.

The security of our bitcoin addresses and its private keys are secured by SHA256 algorithm which is backed by ECDSA cryptography. They will be safer till quantum computers hit the market, then we will switch to new more secured algorithm for our address/privatekey security.

So, bitcoin will remain safer all the time.

I read that in the beginning there were some serious problems with regard to technical aspects and vulnerabilities, but developers have managed to solve most of them in the early years. At the moment, I think the biggest problems with the Bitcoin network, are problems related to scalability, but there are many competent developers working on it.

In the world we are living now, anything will ever be 100% safe especially online. Although, btc it's very safe to use and to keep your money online.

You can never say that it is 100% safe .
It is just a online system that can be hacked .
Even famous banks have been hacked so there is a possibility that
bitcoin can also be hacked.
NASA the great NASA has also been hacked so now you can say about bitcoin.
So i would suggest you not to keep all your money in blockchain wallet.
Keep it in different offline wallets
or PC wallets will be the best option.
These are just precautions
But there are only a few possibilities that bitcoin will be hacked

for me
PC wallets will be the best option (with pass)
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

There is no such thing as 100% security. It's funny to mention 100% security, especially in the world of computing. Even if you code the most perfect system, you can be vulnerable to an attack like DDOS.

I know you have talented programmers on the Bitcoin developer team. What I want to know is there any attack up to now? Did bitcoin have security weaknesses? I wanted to find out.

Depends how you store your bitcoin but it is safe yes until quantum computing is readily available.

No need to think of security with bitcoin though most save it into the third party wallets. Those were making huge profits with the transactions happening within wallets. In terms of technology too it is 100% successful and never fails.

for me I can consider bitcoin as 100% safe than the other things compare to any banks, though I'm not against with the banks. I'm stating the fact of what bitcoin is really all about.

bitcoin is created in such a way that bitcoin is safe and no hackers can hack, almost all the loopholes have been closed, apalagfi now many large investors who hold bitcoin so that they, helped safeguard them