It was hacked by the stress tests and the volume problem with btc was fully exposed.
prove it ... if you talk about the split of the blockchain, it's not an hack, it's a feature (automated correct by BIP66 enforced).
during the "stress test", i have meit regulary bitcoin transaction without any issue ... BECAUSE i use the bitcoin core 0.11 and automated fees calculation.
so, in the stress test, fees has been at 0,0001 BTC
in "no" stress test situation, the normal fees are 0,00001 BTC for this 2015 year.
there's several definitions of a 'hack'
DdoS is a hack, it overwhelms a network and disrupts normal flow of traffic on the network
the stress test was equal to many as a form of DdoS attack
normal patterns of the btc network were interrupted and while the ST (stress test) was not a huge test of the network capacity to become a global ecommerce network on the leve of mc/visa, the ST was big enough to show btc has issues handling major transaction volumes, not in volume of worth, but in volume of transactions
you admit your had to change your trans fees during the ST, that's a disruption or 'hack' of a networks normal activity
now the 'buzz' all over the net during the ST was that many had huge waits for confirmations so that showed a major problem with the existing node model
did it get any info from the block chain or make changes? no
but like a DdoS attack it stopped normal network flow and exposed a volume related issue with nodes controlling the public ledger when brute force levels of transactions are entered into the daily flow of transactions
in normal daily use, many hate the slow speed of the nodes to do routine confirmations
during the ST the normally SLOW transactions became like quicksand, most people complained confirmations came to a literal stand still for them
our own network couldn't process any customers trying to get their tokens to pay for services during the ST
so while we don't run mining servers, we do interface with the usual btc protocols to generate tokens for purchases of our services and products and btc was down for the count during the ST and paypal and credit card gateways had no problems handling new orders
I don't think btc is going away soon, but I sure don't hold it now as an asset, it's just a payment gateway for us now, like mc/visa and paypal
but the transactions are way too slow normally and when the ST happened it made btc token generations impossible on our network
the ST was in my opinion a major hack of the btc network, some hacks disrupt networks some take or change data
the ST hack just made the whole btc network go into super slow motion and in business you can't have that
just like how many times have minor DdoS attacks taken this site down?
lots, just read their twitter tweets about all the DdoS hacks they suffer
the ST was a very simple form a DdoS attack and while btc survived it, it did expose a major weakness in the EXPERT opinion of many
kool aide drinkers for btc can't analyze anything about btc objectively, like I said, we take btc and paypal and mc/visa direct
the ST was a hack, that's MY OPINION and yep, unlike most here, in big SM I'm a top .2% expert on #bitcoin
did I jump up and down during the ST and bash btc? no
we did a minor story on it saying it exposed what was already known to many, huge volume will be an issue in the future with btc if it goes mainstream, which it now should never do
who wants to wait 6+ hours to move wealth around or even do minor transations?
1 hour is too long
the ST showed how slow the nodes will be if btc moves from being a hobby sort of quasi-currency into a bigger percentage of ecommerce
btc had it's 15 mins of fame and huge value growth 2 years ago, the last 18 months shows the value now and it's a nice value, but it is still eratic and there's no reason to think it will move to levels it hit over 2 years ago, it's in a slow death spiral, a great footnote in history, but it will never be a major global currency unit, it doesn't have the ability to handle mega millions of transactions each day as major CC do
