Bitcoin Forum

A newbie asked what the difference between Bitcoin and real money. I almost  replied that it cannot be counterfeited but paused to think before giving that answer. I wondered that if people can counterfeit money why not Bitcoin. Virtually everything can be counterfeited thesdays. Can Bitcoin be counterfeited?

Yes and no... At this moment, ff you use an official wallet with loads of checkpoints, a good number of peers, you wait for a good number of confirmations and use your common sense, it's impossible to "counterfeit" bitcoin (AFAIK).
IIRC, there used to be bugs in the protocol that did allow somebody to misuse the network, but AFAIK, those bugs are long fixed.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=822.0

However, there are several ways to scam somebody... For example, you can trick somebody into accepting 0-conf transactions, then double spend the input while the original transaction is still unconfirmed.

As for really "counterfeiting". I guess you could clone bitcoin, change the timestamp, recreate the genesis block, change the ports, remove the checkpoints, change the seed nodes and compile a wallet that looks 100% like the official bitcoin core qt wallet, but it's actually just your own private blockchain. You could then mine on your own chain and give yourself a lot of block rewards without spending any real effort.
If you would convince somebody to use your wallet, you could potentially send them "counterfeited", worthless tokens on your own blockchain... You'd have to find somebody gullible enough to download your fake wallet tough, and this person would never find any of his transactions on any legit online block explorer...
Not really plausible  ;D

With regards to counterfeiting bitcoin, I am confident that bitcoin could not be the same as fiat money cash being faked or what so called counterfeiting. Then people mostly been a victim of this criminal act commited by wrong doers who is not affraid to commit illegal. In bitcoin hackers could not do counterfeiting with digital currency because blockchain network has very strong security and wallet address is the best ways of security assurance why your bitcoin is not being counterfeited.

I don't think bitcoin can be counterfeited. If it is possible already people could have tried it. Though everything is open sourced bitcoin has got high security features which can never be counterfeited. In my view when this becomes possible the uniqueness of bitcoin gets destroyed paving path for alts to pump high in capital.

Nope. That's why Bitcoin has the value it does today. It was the first digital asset that is impossible to counterfeit and doesn't require a third party to back it up. That's the problem it solved and that's why it's a big deal.

If there were the slightest possibility of that happening it would be worthless. You absolutely cannot send or receive anything that isn't BTC.

Well you dont need to think too deep if bitcoin really can be counterfeited. Well before the confirmation of transactions were placed on the blockchain the best way to counterfeit bitcoin is to double spent it. Double spent coins means sending one amount using two transactions to either the same address or different addresses. Many have been a victim of doublespent before and thats why confirmation of transactions was strictly implemented.

Double spending is not the same thing as counterfeiting, this is totaly different thing. Since Bitcoin exists only as a virtual currency, as digital asser, it can't be counterfeited. That is,also one of the Bitcoin advantages comparing to traditional currencies but unfortunately it could be abused in hundreds of other different ways.

As of now, I think that would not be possible. This is one strong feature of Bitcoin that we can take advantage of. Had it been possible, there would be many hackers who would spend 24/7 cracking the code to counterfeit Bitcoin. Instead they just hacked wallets and exchanges in order to get Bitcoin. Satoshi designed it this way.

People counterfeit bills, not electronic money.
With Bitcoin, just remember that what you have is a balance in an online ledger. That can't be duplicated. It might be stolen, but it cannot be duplicated.

What would be counterfeit a bitcoin?

Bitcoin is no physical good that could be counterfeit ???

I think the question has no real meaning. Maybe you wanted to say something else?

I dont think  counterfeited as bitcoin is becoming use i exchangw of goods and services. It still working fine, maybe for forfeited once you wallet is hacked by someone.

LOL.... For Bitcoin to be counterfeited, there should be some mechanism in place which permits the double spending of coins. As of now, no one has invented any such mechanism.

The beauty of distributed ledger / blockchain is that it can not be counterfeited.  Nor can the details of a transaction be modified once the transaction is confirmed. More coins can not be created outside of the protocol. That is what makes bitcoin superior to fiat. It can not be manipulated.

Even that happening is very much difficult because the possibility of hacking someone's wallet and then try to double spend on his/her transaction is highly unlikely. Its simple not possible because to counterfeit, it will take a lot of work to do which will be more than the value of BTC.

No, that's why the mining system exists - to confirm that the transaction definitely happened with real coins (which by the way are real money as fiat money represents nothing except previously created fiat money, while Bitcoin has a limited supply).  

However, while there can't be counterfeit Bitcoin, it's possible for people to believe that they have received Bitcoin when they haven't.  That's why zero-confirmation transactions are dangerous, because they can be double-spent.  From the receivers' perspective in those situations it could be like they received "counterfeit" Bitcoin, but they wouldn't actually be able to spend it again themselves, thus making it worthless.

It can't be counterfeited if you wait for a suitable number of confirmations, the thing irreversibility of transactions though means once a mailicious person gets a hold of your money you will never see it again if they don't voluntarily send it back.

In reality though its also virtually impossible to counterfeit real money due to all the security features. You can make something look good but it won't pass all the necessary checks. In that sense those checks are what bitcoin does automatically for you.

on a relative point BOSCH is looking at using this blockchain technology
in its Odometer manufacturing to counteract attempts to tamper with the readings
and for example make cars look like they only did 50,000 miles instead of 150,000.

Because as above BTC or the blockchain transactions cannot be manipulated or counterfeited.

I believe, though not entirely certain, that bitcoin cannot be subjected to counterfeiting. The main proof for that claims is: bitcoin has been around for years and yet we do not hear about counterfeit bitcoin, did we? If ever counterfeiting of bitcoin is possible then it should be done a long time ago and there would be so much bitcoin in circulation, thus, the value of bitcoin should have been really low.

You are right, everything can be faked or counterfieted virtually but I don't think it cam be possible for bitcoin to be counterfeited . If you are going to differentiate it with fiat bitcoin has its very unique way to validate all of its transactions, I don't have much knowledge about cryptography but I know that bitcoin is designed by its creator to be impossible to counterfeit because it has a unique codes which can only be verified by the network . That's the only idea i have about that ;D everyone can correct me ;D

The fact that people are still convinced of bitcoin. As technology security progresses, counterfeiting can be minimized

I think it's impossible to forge bitcoins, since all bitcoin transactions are transparent, saved forever, and all of them can be tracked. From nowhere, a new block simply can not arise. And if it does, it will simply fall out of the system and it will be immediately visible.

Unlike most currencies, Bitcoin is not issued by a specific currency agency. It is generated through a large number of calculations based on a particular algorithm. The Bitcoin economy uses a distributed database of nodes in the entire P2P network to confirm and record all transactions, And use cryptography to ensure the safety of all aspects of currency circulation. P2P decentralization and algorithms themselves ensure that currency can not be artificially manipulated by massively producing bitcoin.

I believe that bitcoin can not be tampered with, because bitcoin has been proven over the years and we have not heard of bitcoin spoofing. In fact, people are investing in bitcoin, also trust the bitcoin because it is highly secure, well-secured and a source of income for them.

No bitcoin cannot be counterfeited.  This is just not possible because of the way bitcoin was coded.  You just can't make actual bitcoins out of thin air.