Could bitcoin be hacked?

[BitNerd]

I've heard that if a group of people controls most of the coins, or transactions, whatever... they could change the bitcoin program, steal etc. How much of this is true and what is the chance that it happens?

EDIT: Yes I was talking about the 51% thing. This thing makes bitcoin look like democracy, which sucks.

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[mcb1221]

I've heard that if a group of people control most of the coins, or transactions, whatever... they could change the bitcoin program, steal etc. How much of this is true and what is the chance that it happens?

all that you have heard is False. Until unless you dont handover your private key to some rouge man you are safe.

[Slark]

I've heard that if a group of people controls most of the coins, or transactions, whatever... they could change the bitcoin program, steal etc. How much of this is true and what is the chance that it happens?

So far in the history of Bitcoin, there has never been an attack on the blockchain that resulted in stolen money. You can pretty much assume that bitcoin network itself is 'hacker free'.
On the contrary to bitcoin satellite services like online wallets providers or exchanges - these services are vulnerable and can be hacked.

[AgentofCoin]

I've heard that if a group of people control most of the coins, or transactions, whatever... they could change the bitcoin program, steal etc. How much of this is true and what is the chance that it happens?

First of all, what you have written above doesn't actually make any sense.
I believe you are either referring to a group of people controlling a majority of nodes or a majority of miners.
Ultimately if you are asking that, you are asking a very complex question that has many different parts that
each need their own explanation. For the sake of not getting into every detail, I would advise you not to worry
since in order to do any real damage it would take the effort of tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) of
dollars and a massive coordinated attack of which would be on the scale of a government attack.


But if your question is more simple, then a group:

1. controlling most coins doesn't do or mean anything.
2. controlling most transactions doesn't do or mean anything.
3. can not change the "Bitcoin program".
4. can not steal bitcoins from the "Bitcoin program".

But, a group could steal your bitcoins if you do not protect your privatekeys and your computer from malware/viruses.

[pooya87]

I've heard that if a group of people controls most of the coins, or transactions, whatever... they could change the bitcoin program, steal etc. How much of this is true and what is the chance that it happens?

i think what you have heard is about the 51% attack. that is the only thing that comes to my mind when you say a group of people controlling most of .... (the blank is not coins it is hashpower). and that will cause the ability to double spend.

just FYI in 2014 GHASH.IO had more than 51% of hash power and nothing bad happened
http://www.coindesk.com/51-attacks-real-threat-bitcoin/

for more information about weaknesses read the wiki and ask question more specifically about which part is not clear to you: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses

[amacar2]

NO bitcoin network can't be hacked  but bitcoin wallet could be hacked specially online wallet and also your wallet if your computer is accessed by some expert physically or remotely by some malware.

[Quartx]

Well depends on your definition of hack.

A pool or mega rich farmer can theoretically scheme to try to get 51% of the total hashrate of bitcoins. This would be a scenario where said entity can control transactions as long as he is in power, or simply try to destroy the network with fake transactions which would be very difficult to reverse after that. Many would say that the possibilty of such an attack is very low as said entity would earn so much more by playing nice.

Learn more at https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses

[senyorito123]

NO bitcoin network can't be hacked  but bitcoin wallet could be hacked specially online wallet and also your wallet if your computer is accessed by some expert physically or remotely by some malware.

The bitcoin wallet is can be hack even it have high security features it can be hackable to those pro hackers even not pros can hack they can easily make phising site. Phising site is the one common use of newbie hackers it can get your email password and by that they can access your email if you log in to their bait. But we most carefull by this we should avoid shortened link and to avoid our wallet to be hack and dont cry later.

[Herbert2020]

NO bitcoin network can't be hacked  but bitcoin wallet could be hacked specially online wallet and also your wallet if your computer is accessed by some expert physically or remotely by some malware.

The bitcoin wallet is can be hack even it have high security features it can be hackable to those pro hackers even not pros can hack they can easily make phising site. Phising site is the one common use of newbie hackers it can get your email password and by that they can access your email if you log in to their bait. But we most carefull by this we should avoid shortened link and to avoid our wallet to be hack and dont cry later.

you are giving half ass information.

whether or not a bitcoin wallet can be hacked depends only on what type of wallet you are using. if you are using a web wallet then yes it is the most vulnerable to hacking. it can be phishing, it can be brute force for finding weak passwords or it can be a key logger.

but if you have a desktop wallet the hacking becomes more difficult and if it is offline (in a cold storage) the hacking becomes almost impossible.

[NorrisK]

If bitcoin were to be hacked on a protocol level we would be in much bigger trouble than you think.

The core of the bitcoin security is the very strong encryption that is also used in basically everything we use today. If bitcoin gets hacked through faulty encryption, rest assured, people will target banks and major financial institutions and not your bitcoin wallet containing a few coins.

Also, your mail accounts and basically anything would stop functioning if this happened.

[Amph]

the only real threat is the infamous 51% attack, but they need to acquire an immense amount of hashrate first, which mean spending a lot of money

i could see this worth it, only if the price of bitcoin skyrocket so fast that it would be better to attack the network than waiting for the profit from the mining

[Wendigo]

Well it totally depends on how you have secured your wallets and computers in the first place. If you are neglecting your security and are downloading random stuff to your work machine where your wallet is installed your coins can be easily compromised. Personally I prefer using mostly online wallets and mobile wallets for my phones and haven't had any issues whatsoever till now but I am trying to steer clear of obvious scams like dubious email links and running weird exe files. Anything of value could be stolen from you not only Bitcoin if there are no preventive measures in place to thwart the attackers.

[yenxz]

I've heard that if a group of people controls most of the coins, or transactions, whatever... they could change the bitcoin program, steal etc. How much of this is true and what is the chance that it happens?

A very small chance to bitcoin or altcoin being hacked by their program,its have more effort than create the program,maybe the only one to hack bitcoin is like what people post before,phising attack and scamming site,its a terrible way.

[Bitcoinbee]

as of my understanding bitcoin cant be hack. what can be hack is what you use in storing your bitcoin. information to your bitcoin wallet account like e mails information. so if possible keep this information to yourself.

[DARKCHANGE]

Bitcoins is the safest crypto currency right now. You need to compare basic source, hash rates and more important, the people behind. Bitcoin is actively being supported by the community and bugs fixed in a short time manner. There is no 100% guarantee that it is "hack-free". At least the currency proofed itself as reliable since 2009.

[bob123]

Bitcoin and its blockchain can't be hacked.
You probably r talking about the 51% attack where people control more than 50% of all nodes.
Just google that.

[shinratensei_]

lol, bitcoin can't be hacked, the thing that can make your bitcoin stolen or lets say hacked is your email,wallet,and your privkey

[Kprawn]

I've heard that if a group of people controls most of the coins, or transactions, whatever... they could change the bitcoin program, steal etc. How much of this is true and what is the chance that it happens?

i think what you have heard is about the 51% attack. that is the only thing that comes to my mind when you say a group of people controlling most of .... (the blank is not coins it is hashpower). and that will cause the ability to double spend.

just FYI in 2014 GHASH.IO had more than 51% of hash power and nothing bad happened
http://www.coindesk.com/51-attacks-real-threat-bitcoin/

for more information about weaknesses read the wiki and ask question more specifically about which part is not clear to you: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses

Nothing bad happened, because people saw what was happening and they shifted to other pools and their main intention was not to get a 51% majority of the hashing power to do harm.. it just

happened. If someone or a group of people goes out to do this, to do some harm... then they will have to be willing to burn a lot of money to accomplish that. You need a hell of a lot of money to

buy that amount of hashing power... and to maintain it. The money spend to get that, will most probably offset the amount that could be gained form doing it.  ... Gavin and the rest of the

developers at the time said, they had a counter, if this happens anyway. 

[Vaskiy]

lol, bitcoin can't be hacked, the thing that can make your bitcoin stolen or lets say hacked is your email,wallet,and your privkey

Yeah bitcoin can never be hacked unless private keys lost, also the bitcoin wallet has to be protected by you by assigning strong passwords and other preventive measures has to be applied, it's all your mistake if it gets hacked .

[smho_16]

Want to be sure, the only way is to buy a hardware wallet like Trezor, or any other , any other wallet can be hacked, web wallet, or desktop wallet, depending on who access your computer. I don't know anything about the 51% thing, but that needs a lot of investment from what I am reading now on google, so the hardware wallet remains safe again.