[Edit: Attack occurred, and the coin is, indeed, vulnerable. I wrote a small paper on it, that's available here:]

Edit: Attack occurred, and the coin is, indeed, vulnerable. I wrote a small paper on it, that's available here:
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d8dwuGznri35uNHDxhUcRDXD0I8afKN9R3G3oPNhBbo

It's only three pages, and contains far too much maths and hypotheticals. However, instructions for taking over the coin yourself are in the last section.

For those that are unaware, Unattanium is a newish limited-number-of-coins SHA coin.

They've recently had to fork the chain, because the difficulty calculations were broken, and it went far too high.  Sadly, they've now broken it in the other direction, and the dev seems intent on ignoring this, and abusing or hand-waving the problems away.

It's now running at an 8 second block time.

Now, for everyone who is NOT facepalming right now, this is faster than blockchain propagation. Basically, it will be amazingly difficulty for the coin to agree on a valid chain, because there will be any number of chains that are almost the same length.

So, After being asked to help out to fix the stuck difficulty, I jumped on their IRC channel and had a discussion with someone called 'Unattanium' who was opped in the channel mentioned on their website.

I phrase that carefully, because I'd hate to slander someone who actually knows what he or she is doing. Because this person didn't.

Anyway, rather than addressing the issue, he (I'm assuming this person is a male. I apologise if you're not) said things like...

<•Unattainium> and who cares about orphans
<•Unattainium> it doesnt break a chain or anything
<•Unattainium> i dont care if it fucks up miner ui or stats
<X-Rob> Well. Everyone who's mining cares about orphan shares.
<X-Rob> uh orphan blocks
<•Unattainium> Everyone will be on the same playing field
<X-Rob> Well no
<•Unattainium> I'll get the same amount of orphans are you
<•Unattainium> as you*

Which is obviously wrong. All I, as a bad guy, need to do is to have more hash rate than you, the innocent miner. At 8 seconds, it's highly unlikely that your block will even have reached me before I mine my next one, leaving me to perform a 51% attack with much less than 51% - it would be (coin hashrate * 0.51)/(average block latency time / coin block time)

Average block latency from bitcoind is around 4 seconds.  Or, basically, I can now perform a 51% attack with only 25% of the coin.

<X-Rob> if your'e going to claim I'm wrong, you'll need to actually back that up.
<•Unattainium> You're spewing nonsense\
<X-Rob> Yet, here I am, saying I'm not.
<•Unattainium> I'm just gonna stop responding
<X-Rob> And you're yet to provide proof that I am
<•Unattainium> Beacuse I think you are either a) ignorant as fuck, or b) trolling hard
<X-Rob> I'm neither
<•Unattainium> there is no option c
<X-Rob> I'm trying to fix a problem that you seem to be deliberately ignoring
<X-Rob> problem is: 8 seconds is far too short.
<•Unattainium> I'm done
<•Unattainium> Not worth my time

So there you go, people.  Fixing a design flaw in the change, that was to FIX a design flaw, is not worth his or her time.

Of course the next design flaw, which will be implemented to fix this design flaw, will be be something awesomely terrible, and I can't wait to see what it is.

Edit: The next design flaw, which was implemented ... for no real reason that I could see, was to randomise the reward, leaving the block times the same, but not giving anyone any notice. So yes. It was awesomely terrible.

Have fun now.

Turns out I don't have enough time to play around with this.

So, selling!  2BTC including express parcel delivery to anywhere in Australia.  Outside of Australia, we can negotiate.

--Rob


Has been sold!

Along with the S1's, I've also got a Technobit HEX8A1 that's just come back from warranty repairs.

Asking .5BTC for it, including delivery to anywhere in Australia.

These are loved and well maintained S1's.   All have WiFi Antennas, up to date Firmware, and a new, more reliable, CGMiner.

SHIPPING IS NOT INCLUDED - unless you buy all 15.

These are in hand, in stock, and are one of the few miners that you can buy now that will actually give a ROI. Bonus!

Power supplies are available, if wanted.

Questions? Comments? Ask away.

So.. I'm first off the rank:

WTB: -.15btc S1 Coupons -- willing to pay up to 0.002BTC per day of validity.

[13TH]

Reputation Thread. So I can be reputable!

So, whilst I'm classed as a 'newbie' on BCT, I'm not.  I managed to lose my old security token, and it was just too much like hard work to use my old 'qldrob' account.   I have many successful BTC/Fiat Trades in Gribble, and I'm a well known Open Source Developer.

Proof link -> https://twitter.com/xrobau/status/444216530448809984

Current Rigs available on LeaseRig:  
  'AusMiner' - 13TH
    1 x CoinCraft HEX8A1 260GH
    28 x S1 (5.6TH)
    6 x S2 (6TH)
    1 x DragonMiner (1TH)
    2 x S3 (.8TH)
    Theoretical GH - 13.6TH.  However, it tends to mine at around 13TH, so it's advertised and sold at that rate.

   'AusMiner-2' - Leased Long Term, unavailable, sorry!
     10 x S1's

   'AusMiner-3'
      6 x Avalon3 Blades (~2TH) - Note, not suitable for pools with large coinbases (eg, p2pool, eligius)

Current Rigs available on BetaRig:
  Nothing at the moment! Sorry!

Recently found BTC blocks:
   2014-06-17 -- 101G (At difficulty 13.5G) - http://imgur.com/tAytrto
   2014-07-04 -- 19.8G (At difficulty 16.8G) - http://imgur.com/WycH4cn

And, of course, I've been bitten. Sigh.

I did, in good faith, do some research before buying a couple of Antminer S1's from Sushi Review. Plenty of good reviews, plenty of people saying they received what they ordered.

And, as Sushi is in China (and I'm in Australia) I thought I'd order through there, rather than through Bitmain, for shorter delivery times.

Bad mistake.  Order was accepted, payment was received, and then.. nothing.

After not getting shipping confirmation the next day (when the order promised next day shipping), I opened a ticket asking for a tracking number. Nothing.

Then after a couple of days, I opened ANOTHER ticket asking for a refund.  Still nothing.

And now I see lots and lots of posts appearing from OTHER people who also haven't received their orders, and have had their emails and tickets ignored.

So, Sorry, but it appears that his catchphrase of "Because Bitcoins Are Here to Stay" is missing a word.  It should now be "Because YOUR Bitcoins are here to stay".

TL;DR:  Sushi has given up on actually shipping things people pay for. Sushi Review = Scam.