It seems one needs a degree in computer science here to understand what's going on, and I don't have that. I'm not even that f-ing intelligent. Can anyone explain to me what this 'attack' is all about in very simple infant goo-goo talk?
Is this not a good reason to start using some altcoins? I just did doge and ltc transactions today that went through quite fast. I'm just asking.
Also, I'm not trying to spread any sort of fear, uncertainty, or doubt, but these transaction times are an absolute deal-breaker for using BTC to pay for anything face to face, like in a restaurant. Am I right?
In simple terms, the bitcoin network cannot handle more than a certain volume of transactions every hour. This is in general a result of the system only producing one 'block' on average every ten minutes, and each 'block' containing only 1 Megabyte of space for transactions.
This so-called "attack" consists of someone creating more than that number of transactions per hour. The result is that transactions go into the "memory pool" - the set of transactions not yet included in a block - instead of getting quickly included in blocks. And transactions in the memory pool get kicked out of the pool when the server running that node runs out of memory. It's very probabilistic, but if your transaction stays in the memory pool long enough (days or weeks) it will probably get kicked out of everywhere and then it will never go through at all.
So if you make a transaction now, your transaction is in danger of going into the memory pool and staying there a long time, or maybe even getting dropped, because right now the memory pool is big enough to keep making blocks for 18 hours not even counting the usual transaction volume.
If your transaction gets dropped, it'll be like it never happened - the coins will go back to the sender's wallet.
That means that if someone is sending you coins you need to be sure of some confirmations before you give them whatever they're paying for. Confirmations mean that the transaction actually got into a block and became part of the permanent record of Bitcoin.
And if you're sending someone coins, and don't want to wait days for them to get confirmations and send you the stuff you're paying for, you need to cut in front of all these little transactions, by setting your transaction fees a little higher than those transactions are setting them. Just a tiny bit (like an extra USAmerican penny) will do it.
Wow. A 7900 bitcoin transaction just went by on my node. Holy cow. That's like, eight slices of Laszlo's pizza.
Anyway, the people making these transactions are paying transaction fees - which means they're paying the miners (a little bit) to include these transactions in the blocks that are being made. So far they've committed $30K dollars to doing this. The transactions will therefore stop when they either run out of money, accomplish whatever they're trying to do, or conclusively fail to accomplish whatever they're trying to do.
Anyway, it's not a good reason to start using altcoins. At least I don't think it is. It's just something that means that for as long as it lasts a bitcoin transaction will cost you an extra penny or so in fees.
