lazarus (OP)
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March 27, 2013, 01:59:06 PM |
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If massive amounts of computational power, cryptography, and distributed networks are the only things backing the Bitcoin economy, would it be possible for distributed attacks to bring it down? Virii, DDOS, EMP's, network outages. What's the worst case scenario that Bitcoin can withstand?
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bjf
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March 27, 2013, 02:04:36 PM |
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the worst case: the us govenment declare bitcoin to a terroristic instrument and plan to arrest every user in Guantanamo -> game over
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lazarus (OP)
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March 27, 2013, 02:13:12 PM |
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I think worse case scenario could involve quantum computing breaking all the public keys - but I don't even know what this means.
DDOS... against who ? Every person out there ? It'd be like everyone pinging each other... ping pong..
I read that Deepbit had over 50% of Bitcoin's computational power (which poses another problem besides the obvious). What if it were attacked? Now Bitcoin doesn't seem quite as distributed to me. Such an attack would slow transactions down tremendously? |
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tysat
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Keep it real
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March 27, 2013, 02:22:17 PM |
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I think worse case scenario could involve quantum computing breaking all the public keys - but I don't even know what this means.
DDOS... against who ? Every person out there ? It'd be like everyone pinging each other... ping pong..
I read that Deepbit had over 50% of Bitcoin's computational power (which poses another problem besides the obvious). What if it were attacked? Now Bitcoin doesn't seem quite as distributed to me. Such an attack would slow transactions down tremendously? Where did you read that? I'm pretty sure they're nowhere close anymore. |
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Bitobsessed
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March 27, 2013, 02:26:16 PM |
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I think worse case scenario could involve quantum computing breaking all the public keys - but I don't even know what this means.
DDOS... against who ? Every person out there ? It'd be like everyone pinging each other... ping pong..
I read that Deepbit had over 50% of Bitcoin's computational power (which poses another problem besides the obvious). What if it were attacked? Now Bitcoin doesn't seem quite as distributed to me. Such an attack would slow transactions down tremendously? Where did you read that? I'm pretty sure they're nowhere close anymore. Everything you read is the truth on the internetz... Here bookmark this please: http://bitcoinchain.com/And here is another good one: http://bitcoinwatch.com/ |
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MoonShadow
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March 27, 2013, 02:27:21 PM |
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I think worse case scenario could involve quantum computing breaking all the public keys - but I don't even know what this means.
DDOS... against who ? Every person out there ? It'd be like everyone pinging each other... ping pong..
I read that Deepbit had over 50% of Bitcoin's computational power (which poses another problem besides the obvious). What if it were attacked? Now Bitcoin doesn't seem quite as distributed to me. Such an attack would slow transactions down tremendously? That's a very old report you were reading. The current data can be found at www.bitcoinwatch.com, down near the bottom in a pie chart. BTW "other" is a collection of unknown miners, that may or may not be a single entity, but probably not. No single group comes close to 50%. |
"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world."
- Carroll Quigley, CFR member, mentor to Bill Clinton, from 'Tragedy And Hope'
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zeocrash
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March 27, 2013, 02:28:29 PM |
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Worst case scenario, asteroid hits the earth, we all die, no more bitcoin
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MoonShadow
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March 27, 2013, 02:32:17 PM |
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If massive amounts of computational power, cryptography, and distributed networks are the only things backing the Bitcoin economy, would it be possible for distributed attacks to bring it down? Virii, DDOS, EMP's, network outages. What's the worst case scenario that Bitcoin can withstand?
The computational power doesn't back the bitcoin economy, it secures the blockchain against a brute force attack, commonly called a "51% attack" here. Even a successful 51% attack would not "bring it down". More like aggravate the legit users for as long as the attacker can keep it up, and maybe perform a double spend against a particular user the attacker recently had a transaction with. If that user isn't you, then your coins are safe even during a 51% attack, you just can't spend them while the attack is ongoing. |
"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world."
- Carroll Quigley, CFR member, mentor to Bill Clinton, from 'Tragedy And Hope'
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BurtW
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All paid signature campaigns should be banned.
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March 27, 2013, 02:44:29 PM |
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Worst case the bubble bursts and BTC go back down to let's say $10 and I buy back what I just sold, oh, wait that does not sound that bad now that I read it back.
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Our family was terrorized by Homeland Security. Read all about it here: http://www.jmwagner.com/ and http://www.burtw.com/ Any donations to help us recover from the $300,000 in legal fees and forced donations to the Federal Asset Forfeiture slush fund are greatly appreciated! |
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deathcode
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March 27, 2013, 02:54:01 PM |
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I think worse case scenario could involve quantum computing breaking all the public keys - but I don't even know what this means.
DDOS... against who ? Every person out there ? It'd be like everyone pinging each other... ping pong..
ping pong ping pong..... hhaha love it! Quantum computer is not a threat to bitcoin. If quantum computer develops, the whole banking system and I mean, all banks in the world would be at risk... (credit cards, all websites that rely in ssl, etc) So bitcoin would be the least of our worries... |
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lazarus (OP)
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March 27, 2013, 03:07:58 PM |
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I read that Deepbit had over 50% of Bitcoin's computational power (which poses another problem besides the obvious). What if it were attacked? Now Bitcoin doesn't seem quite as distributed to me. Such an attack would slow transactions down tremendously?
That's a very old report you were reading. The current data can be found at www.bitcoinwatch.com, down near the bottom in a pie chart. BTW "other" is a collection of unknown miners, that may or may not be a single entity, but probably not. No single group comes close to 50%. Around June 2011, so yes I suppose: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12120.0. Thanks for the information, everyone! |
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toomsie
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March 27, 2013, 03:29:35 PM |
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Quantum computer is not a threat to bitcoin. If quantum computer develops, the whole banking system and I mean, all banks in the world would be at risk... (credit cards, all websites that rely in ssl, etc)
So bitcoin would be the least of our worries...
I wish a quantum computer did exist. Imagine the computer games possible. |
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toomsie
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March 27, 2013, 03:32:09 PM |
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Quantum computer is not a threat to bitcoin. If quantum computer develops, the whole banking system and I mean, all banks in the world would be at risk... (credit cards, all websites that rely in ssl, etc)
So bitcoin would be the least of our worries...
Wasn't the blockchain farked couple of weeks back. |
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MoonShadow
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March 27, 2013, 03:36:04 PM |
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Quantum computer is not a threat to bitcoin. If quantum computer develops, the whole banking system and I mean, all banks in the world would be at risk... (credit cards, all websites that rely in ssl, etc)
So bitcoin would be the least of our worries...
Wasn't the blockchain farked couple of weeks back. We had a blockchain split, due to a database bug. We have naturally occuring blockchain splits all of the time, but the network is normally self-correcting. The bug was preventing a self-correction. It was a big deal only to the developers, as their reputation was impacted. Users weren't impacted except for some short term confirmation delays. If you weren't trying to move funds at the time, you woudn't have noticed. |
"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world."
- Carroll Quigley, CFR member, mentor to Bill Clinton, from 'Tragedy And Hope'
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