Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Bitcoin Discussion => Topic started by: Shortline on August 26, 2011, 12:55:45 PM



Title: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: Shortline on August 26, 2011, 12:55:45 PM
Has anyone seen a confirmed double spend attack?

Mybitcoin doesn't count.



Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: jackjack on August 26, 2011, 02:47:10 PM
No, never


Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: the founder on August 26, 2011, 03:02:30 PM
No, never

The Mt. Gox's hack was a double spend attack / create fake bitcoins / crap attack (though internally in their system) 



Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: SomeoneWeird on August 26, 2011, 03:30:11 PM
No, never

The Mt. Gox's hack was a double spend attack / create fake bitcoins / crap attack (though internally in their system) 



Wasn't a real double-spend attack.


Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: elggawf on August 26, 2011, 03:36:27 PM
Wasn't a real double-spend attack.

Wasn't really a double-spend attack at all - MtGox doesn't give discrete addresses or let the users control them in any way. MtGox was an internal accounting screw up that had zero effect on the security of the protocol as a whole.


Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: Are-you-a-wizard? on August 26, 2011, 04:26:53 PM
If I could do it, my son, I would be retired from these forums by now, and in my yacht.


Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: SomeoneWeird on August 26, 2011, 04:27:30 PM
Wasn't a real double-spend attack.

Wasn't really a double-spend attack at all - MtGox doesn't give discrete addresses or let the users control them in any way. MtGox was an internal accounting screw up that had zero effect on the security of the protocol as a whole.

Exactly, the 'hack' didn't even touch the network.


Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: Steve on August 26, 2011, 06:02:23 PM
I can't say as I've ever seen one...I'm certainly not aware of any (legitimate) reports of someone being robbed by a double spend.  I suspect many people new to bitcoin have attempted a naive double spend attack however (where you open two instances on the same wallet and try to spend at the same time).  I'm not sure if you would want to count that as a double spend attack since it's utterly ineffective if you wait for one confirmation or if you monitor the network for a few seconds after receiving the transaction.


Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: Tasty Champa on August 26, 2011, 06:22:21 PM
dude what's the point??

it's old news, it doesn't work, don't be a crook.


Title: Re: Double-spends in the wild?
Post by: elggawf on August 26, 2011, 07:17:27 PM
dude what's the point??

it's old news, it doesn't work, don't be a crook.

It would work if someone delivers the non-returnable goods after 0 or 1 confirmations. It gets harder as the amount of confirmations goes up (and even with the slump so far, the Bitcoin network is still powerful enough that it's non-trivial to even do with one confirmation).

It's not that it doesn't work, it's that the payoff is probably not worth the amount of effort required to do it. No one moving a sizable amount of money is going to not wait for confirmations and the longer they choose to wait the harder the attack gets.