Mother of all spam attacks on bitcoin network! proof?

[pooya87]

trolling is not tolerated.

on 2017-01-23 from 7PM to 8PM this address (1EPKSuFjTH3xbCK3b5ebaPbe8iUGvKvF8a) started receiving (first arrow in pic below) lots of transactions which were all strange and then started sending them out (near second arrow)



all the transactions it was receiving were strange, for example each of the sending addresses send their balance in multiple transactions instead of just one (sometimes up to 9 transactions) within a very short time frame (from couple of seconds to 1 minute). all with these transactions had higher fee than the normal of that time. and if they are followed back, they are all involved in strange transactions with behavior similar to what happens during spam attacks (also at the same time when a peak happens in the size of mempool)

and surely enough spam attack happened on 2017-01-23 around 10 PM and mempool started growing fast. numbers going to 50-70K.

same process was repeated on 2017-01-30 for this address (16FEW2CboX5hVk3FqxNJ3Wt5StySpu1TZH)

a total amount of 1.6 million dollar in these two addresses and much more in related ones.

now i ask you, coincidence? idiocy? or mother of all spams?

another one:
3DFxwfbPhPcqwXDKAZs83pWGuwasYKqdyR (notice the 10 seconds apart transactions)

another one:
1GDhoFrzbQ6Yp9LitKEH8xnWhUjhmaQRft (notice the 1-10 seconds apart transactions starting from back in 2012)

The following set of quoted addresses are claimed to be used by Komodo notary nodes but all the transactions created by these keys are a waste of space so they are listed here as a part of spam attack.
an example transaction from the first key:
https://blockchain.info/tx/1148de03991e0bf17e2846e7eb9373f7ae280ca07349f637052a6874c5b2eb5c?show_adv=true

https://blockchain.info/address/1E2ac2gxeFR2ir1H3vqETTperWkiXkwy99?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1L5ykndv7aiEB33ojjDqyTKjmVykiHtobH?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/19yj1mUuA6nAoCRVvPY7Wo8MmBc9jPJBpo?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1FUbfkGzm7fcrexDCkx2ATFghJY7u7nZf8?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1DZQLUB5nYngw52zUoA7AQ1aJ74UXr4nBF?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1BMLUBy8MMEmpvudWhHXgnv5VCNr5ZxF3n?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1TWDh4PrHLFujRYujyZBWs2NPJN1hVux4?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/15FxFngAdULgovYV1jDy4AHSPsgKCdKWb5?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1M7yrxRLefgjxPNXMtsRfQ2ExJT1aoYr8a?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1LaTUQVT6jk2wv1w9CE27UZd2SZDrzJtx8?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1HvDEybR7sX1w3VPcKKpSMGEmqN2kBGAp2?show_adv=true

https://blockchain.info/address/17bgX68iQZW4RxeQTSw3AZBpboMKjYsscB?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/1G5kXhf4tN9ab42znVGcwVVkN96nQaQBR7?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/15R3C2ZKmak5pCc4duLY2jLtFD3o1jaeNd?show_adv=true
https://blockchain.info/address/13swCVuXeZhWkmwEXod83Mv2YWKVqYeMVS?show_adv=true

a little bit of history!
the oldest massive scale spam attack that i can remember was called "stress test" back in Aug and Sep 2015 where they started sending transaction with 0.0001BTC and 0.0001BTC fixed fee. then to make matters worse they started releasing the private keys of the addresses involved. soon there were hundreds of people with access to these keys and hundreds of transactions spending the same outputs.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=553487;sa=showPosts

interestingly enough, this method of spam attack is still being used. 1BoatSLRHtKNngkdXEeobR76b53LETtpyT is a well known bitcoin address used in vanitygen with a publicly known private key.

1 satoshi outputs! (thanks to BTC.TOP mining pool for wasting block space)
https://blockchain.info/address/1Enjoy1C4bYBr3tN4sMKxvvJDqG8NkdR4Z
https://blockchain.info/address/1SochiWwFFySPjQoi2biVftXn8NRPCSQC

example tx: https://blockchain.info/tx/75cb4ded9c80289dd581266ff2ab2da51fd72a406ff46270db8e86af1cf1bdd6 (25692 (bytes))

update 2017-04-16
an oldy but a goodie: 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
This address (most probably) belongs to BitFury.
so far this key has made 142102 transactions with very low fee of 25 satoshi/byte and BitFury includes these inside the blocks they mine themselves.

for example:
https://blockchain.info/block-index/1477998 block has been mined on 2017-04-15 10:04:57 while mempool size was 30.8 MB (24.6 K tx). and worst part is that this blocks (and similar blocks) contain a large number of these transactions (in this case 1066 transaction or 411000 bytes - nearly half the block size).

So far today Bitfury have filled over 1 block with 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's sending 0 btc.

13 blocks have been found by Bitfury. (since 00.00gmt) 
6 of those blocks contain no 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's
7 of those blocks contain a total of 2625 transactions from/to 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
0 bitcoin is sent in any of those 2625 tx's
2625 tx's @ 286 - 289 bytes = 1,017,187 bytes, or 1.02 full blocks.
2625 tx's sending 0 bitcoin is getting on for 10% of Bitfury blockspace
10% of Bitfury blockspace = ~1% of all todays conformation's.

No other mining pool has included 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's in any other blocks today.

update 2017-04-23
Mempool is empty, yaay. Oh wait it is not!

[1715158445]

1715158445

[1715158445]

1715158445

[1715158445]

1715158445

[-ck]

The earlier of these spam attacks has been discussed to death here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1762690.0

The graph of rise in transaction sets at the time did not follow the normal stochastic nature of random transaction events. There was a perfect curve with a rise in the number of transactions starting from 2017-01-24 at 06:00 until it peaked at 17:00. After that there have been random injections into the network to keep the value high. The perfect curve is consistent with a single entity constructing a careful crafted set of injections into the network.

See:
http://statoshi.info/dashboard/db/transactions

Change the graph to see the last seven days and you will see why this is not just some random rise in transactions.

It's once again likely a political stunt to bring attention to blocksize and/or segwit.

[pooya87]

yes but i don't see any proof, such as addresses involved in this attack in that topic.
only thing that is filling it up and bumping it a couple of times is a couple of users like kiklo spreading false information.

[Kakmakr]

yes but i don't see any proof, such as addresses involved in this attack in that topic.
only thing that is filling it up and bumping it a couple of times is a couple of users like kiklo spreading false information.

Very good catch there OP, I was also intrigued with the way this spam was done and I could also not figure out with what address it was done. Thanks for the graph, it makes it easier to see the impact as the mempool fills up. It is obvious this person or group knew exactly how to cripple the network and what attack to launch.

You have just given us the evidence and not the theory behind this attack. All the speculation can now be dropped, the evidence is there. ^smile^

These people are doing a lot more harm, than good with these attacks.

[pooya87]

A new address involved with spam attacks:

Code:

1GDhoFrzbQ6Yp9LitKEH8xnWhUjhmaQRft

This one seems to be one of the old ones, spamming from 2012 up to now, and there is no other explanation for sending small amounts to the same address below with seconds apart.

Code:

1GmaH1FeGnioyGGd3RVyPXawTRQLS7g2v9

This time with much smaller fee amounts (~20 sat/byte) unlike the previous ones.

[Quickseller]

It's once again likely a political stunt to bring attention to blocksize and/or segwit.

This may or may not be true. However if you assume it to be true, then why not make these types of attacks more expensive to execute?

[Decoded]

Just a question, why do these spammers not simply spam double-spends, if they're not trying to get their transactions into the block? Because 20 sat/bye most probably wont get confirmed, right?

[danherbias07]

The only question need to be answered is WHY?
What the hell is their purpose? To bring down bitcoin? This could be a work of someone who is really being stepped by bitcoin and what are those? Banks? Alts? Government? Gold investors? They even use a large amount of money just to make other transactions slower. They sure want some bitcoin user to give up using it.

[paul gatt]

The only question need to be answered is WHY?
What the hell is their purpose? To bring down bitcoin? This could be a work of someone who is really being stepped by bitcoin and what are those? Banks? Alts? Government? Gold investors? They even use a large amount of money just to make other transactions slower. They sure want some bitcoin user to give up using it.

I think their purpose is to create a balance, I believe so. Bitcoin is the continuous appreciation with a perfect curve, and suddenly it stopped and unpredictable change, I think that's their adjustment, your questions really reasonable. that's just my speculation temporary, actually I do not know why. if possible, I think we need someone more professional, a talented entrepreneur, or someone more knowledgeable and he will explain to us everything.

[Metaphilibert]

Adresses spotted by amaclin (from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1803970.0) are not spamming but used by komodo notary nodes
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1605144.0

[Sadlife]

Or maybe the government dogs are trying to DDOS the blockchain network through sending spammy transactions to the entire network.
For simple reasons like to hurt the bitcoin price value and to stop it from soaring up.
After all, bitcoin is their biggest rival in the market so they wanna take down this digital currency that they dont have any control to.

[vnvizow]

Might be dark net money laundry business considering the net amount of coins in the addresses

[pooya87]

Adresses spotted by amaclin (from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1803970.0) are not spamming but used by komodo notary nodes
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1605144.0

You've already gotten a proper answer so i won't repeat it.
but in this topic, i am listing all the "Spams" on bitcoin blockchain whenever i find a series of them anywhere. and as you can see i am keeping the "why" of it to a minimum.

and this IS spam no matter the reason:
64 tx_in and 50 tx_out

[amaclin]

You've already gotten a proper answer so i won't repeat it.

You should repeat such things more and more times.
There are several reasons to do it.
a) My English language is not too strong to explain everything clear to native speakers
b) I am not famous person and my words have been questioned
c) If you repeat words - this will be yours words.

[Lauda]

This may or may not be true. However if you assume it to be true, then why not make these types of attacks more expensive to execute?

Nobody can make them more expensive as an individual. Segwit would provide more room, therefore it would require more fees to do this.

Might be dark net money laundry business considering the net amount of coins in the addresses

Doubtful.

Or maybe the government dogs are trying to DDOS the blockchain network through sending spammy transactions to the entire network.
For simple reasons like to hurt the bitcoin price value and to stop it from soaring up.
After all, bitcoin is their biggest rival in the market so they wanna take down this digital currency that they dont have any control to.

Highly doubtful.
OP this is a nice find. I was confident it was another wave of 'subtle' spam. Remember, people like Roger Ver have massive amounts of Bitcoin and could do this for a long time (not that I'm saying its him).

[pooya87]

You've already gotten a proper answer so i won't repeat it.

You should repeat such things more and more times.
There are several reasons to do it.
a) My English language is not too strong to explain everything clear to native speakers
b) I am not famous person and my words have been questioned
c) If you repeat words - this will be yours words.

haha, i am not native English speaker either. and besides for some people it doesn't matter what you say, how many times you say it and who is saying it
and i am trying not to get sucked in who and why of these spams as much as possible that's why i didn't repeat and just linked the reply.

OP this is a nice find. I was confident it was another wave of 'subtle' spam. Remember, people like Roger Ver have massive amounts of Bitcoin and could do this for a long time (not that I'm saying its him).

Thanks, i can't take all the credit though. i usually find these things from different sources and i thought why not make topic and put them all in one place maybe someone finds out more about who really is doing these spams by doing some blockchain analysis.

and i am trying not to reserve my opinion about who and why of these spams to myself (feel free to discuss it though) and mostly stick to the fact that these spams are happening and this is one of the examples of how users are affected (bitmixer payments):

[amaclin]

me using ViaBTC accelerator

Sometimes it can not help
Take this link to your collection
https://blockchain.info/address/39sfuA8pY4UfybgEZi7uvA13jkGzZpsg5K
You can see a lot of chained transactions here.
The owner wastes blockchain space sending the chain of transactions instead of
making one tx with many outputs. Nobody cares

[Lauda]

Here's another list as provided by a IRC member. The left number is not the number of TXs, but rather the number of created UTXOs from a certain address, currently sitting unconfirmed in the mempool:

Code:

1250;"13hB6VxWn52YuzXJJ9FE6Y7NVnT5CtRjmD"
1225;"1FoXbDsvXgwVoFwkszaZjkuRRDADoWTygX"
1114;"37p9pUugydmoLpQyFLLqGAgjWmUFERa1Pq"
797;"1DZQLUB5nYngw52zUoA7AQ1aJ74UXr4nBF"
707;"3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f"
675;"1GKzbQR4NMLXCCYFiFVFXE52gffjv8cLUs"
660;"1Pby9MMZxWyJCh1mwTWu88R5b16RLwDhds"
646;"18RJoQdpxZuCMn9UgdhuDWYAtz4b3uHWSh"
646;"1EH8kxoWZa8wZ7aBRjTCHbQoXAqaKkEu3d"
644;"19sk6EAGn2TNZsRoxKcp4vPe597cj1dmXj"
643;"15R3C2ZKmak5pCc4duLY2jLtFD3o1jaeNd"
642;"1MghixZrbhncwLGWXiP3ZdeDKhzBaJQPKu"
642;"1PigjQNtoDha3xRHivKfRSCfioNzYEukzM"
642;"1L5ykndv7aiEB33ojjDqyTKjmVykiHtobH"
641;"19bNaMgEkqx4ns53MUrvCz8yZgHRXVouxi"
641;"1NxrVmbHuPfxzf4E5bCF4pU5kVDqjQsPMr"
640;"1N7WEwgnh5rFuznG5gy38ZkeeWacLFWZnF"
640;"1F2YvHS6zJv4jTqFgMM4erUXcRXH8W798u"
639;"1PzfSMCJXNggBpb5MZj4UqcTnDgvKheJqr"
639;"16dD2ivfipYyg3s5MiVy9RJTissxnxde9x"
638;"1GxR3ci8Q8UdrzU3PDEfMswpeQdNphKrrj"
638;"18tFbBp4Vn7eBaPDkfms4WcQHDbpScAkuG"
638;"13swCVuXeZhWkmwEXod83Mv2YWKVqYeMVS"
638;"1FUbfkGzm7fcrexDCkx2ATFghJY7u7nZf8"
635;"1PKQ4ssN4hpJmpmkNYVSTxadNNbDLJ7v37"
635;"13Yd4cceh8JsBukRuRx1H1kt7jbvcV2rYy"
632;"1Ezn5qr7VxNu8ysBgViL3rX1uFxnNL4Fu"
631;"1C8c66yipm2vwxJAZCKpi3BJKdV4EaCNGL"
619;"12BPPXrTBEdNDJip5LpAy8LuURE9MRGXiq"
589;"1BkFfsYufY83DqBsd4sYGSGCWMhUEQmeNW"
588;"1HmixPDLTcVSqiyne2JFLj1F1hKVmpC1pU"
584;"1GSd9b6Kzfh25uqZEfsC2rwN6mMUvwuLGi"
583;"1JedibY1Aepb6CjtiKVMb6h8bhXzgiYSL2"
582;"1CwzdV2srLLCnf87erExNA4oEURz2AxPY3"
582;"1J1SMGPzfobKReMvCYfaBf4tshzzeDc9Db"
581;"1M3hLovi5JckrEB1SbN5xXKzhqCRQLLtHa"
580;"1PZSMG2qBKuQcemzeV8odYADD6xYhwMBcT"
579;"1HePRTS9UKZjSh2cfDnzfy44w6T6g4z8hS"
577;"1E2ac2gxeFR2ir1H3vqETTperWkiXkwy99"
576;"1EXnwhS6xD2FHxKMUuuVYdYXnuq421xwUP"
576;"1HvDEybR7sX1w3VPcKKpSMGEmqN2kBGAp2"
576;"1LaTUQVT6jk2wv1w9CE27UZd2SZDrzJtx8"
576;"1M7yrxRLefgjxPNXMtsRfQ2ExJT1aoYr8a"
576;"15mC3hFa1gkcaKQFf3VJJ7KnjrekoozMro"
575;"15GgmzJH9idwdQriM6SjZkWejWoHiobn5N"
574;"1TWDh4PrHLFujRYujyZBWs2NPJN1hVux4"
574;"169d1dD8HYf5SDHzVsxvK56jdGuRondtyA"
572;"1975tJqepTaVZKCLGNQWjHSp1wSCSuybke"
570;"171ERtCXZha6huG6CneqqXBbNhng57Dnb6"
506;"1M2sapnonA8iancSEhLAJgjQGeQC47PKNA"
500;"1FcbmVyyDjp4XSpruVKSMxRX8E7oWh1QAv"
465;"1cYgJk61B8XhNJmLgbxWQ8C1cTD9i62bC"
457;"1Jk7tz1aV4nSkqpurNzdgUTf5fety9g7JP"
454;"15FxFngAdULgovYV1jDy4AHSPsgKCdKWb5"
441;"1HPpy2dJ5TYudTaMZkW9Eu539iyttNScnd"
440;"18rdKmjrg1EawxgiVT3ikLExj6GWS2MNCk"
402;"1GjwxCA3RckyWGogdZamb35Zq1HNXyHQJs"
400;"1MDY66ydrMtN1EmPYwBJskP2wkikrr7WGZ"
370;"1D24UGSHdandjkuUKzM8at8rtcmqBdgiYz"
360;"19PfW28kMoM16uYGpvZcVZx3iGEUP3AHQk"
341;"3LQxUzikM2rWBhUFrLFNiuWPbPLLJn84DB"
340;"19vteuqLwgLdq8UmGWAA7gYkL2aZRQgNK4"
270;"1KvYT82JhJLhZTnVsp3MwPnFJLkc73Tn27"
264;"19QC3ApwwVBeY3EfGGdzdVVwdjSLMeTknB"
250;"13v2uozKR8JfeYyG2C3GfELZxkBgnEhjvK"
250;"35emx395afKAKAr72VoePVbu3FJvxLPVny"
250;"1PACMqxUTqQUnUiMheBMAFhD2qpkDReKrF"
250;"1D11s1DB52qn6Rp2iWZQWXG8pLNTsBGDLC"
250;"1EdEUGSpJCDmf7RAJCYwwXUQ2tKCk2waJe"
247;"1QKsZkTUwuatjf9zd7WYbcQeEVBfbCX6HR"
240;"17CQCr6rJ27ChKeQ9uuzeNZupTfppgshax"
213;"1E3gMVrNFvS653XWaKbGXJcuJs1z5p2Bzm"
211;"14HUEW3SC7RLGfc33J8gDW51oJWeu25cPH"
211;"16VxU8EpfNZ16oG7dgNpBCh5c7WMZVRcNS"
206;"1G5kXhf4tN9ab42znVGcwVVkN96nQaQBR7"
205;"17GQri4MxjP231V5jAm1ZR4YU5nz85zGUt"
205;"153rZWspvsW8SA9rfB3DBuhpe1GoJ8N9jZ"
193;"1GPCJvsRyVkggbJDEd2tEGoyNcFoRELRPA"
187;"1LX1eXXZFcCnUsvLLidRYBTv6DZkUSqEwR"
183;"1EWGQkZbQV3gLz1bzHQoYXbh6Kd94giDDe"
183;"1D5bPm1YAdn9WvAAixht7PbACU3TtkqtJJ"
182;"1G9272Wv7h34CWpX11S3AMifrePCE3G1ta"
179;"1KyxX2Rh7q28E2yEuRHR91zvTTPppcZxNr"
178;"19NKNfwSYQFhoiBEgVCG69svZV3DJQ2ZgU"
177;"182KLHGQbjiyuFQYq4TDezZt7QbTtSUj8o"
177;"1JzqQxXdaqgTMssNty3VCfdyAx1Zpk6ZsX"
168;"1JgKZuWFy2Ca9KDNvj7SRFBCSL3Q1ymzfg"
166;"1MMDDRbaF2nb7injpX3SmdTBYYotSaX95J"
164;"1P1GUaN2PeRDAR7SmqEBhphc9yDfpCAERJ"
163;"12XE2J9WBXuVEADYEPSoahQr8XTKAYgXTv"
162;"148cwk1kyJUXWG2g4TBiGg5iHU3GE8u94b"
158;"13fVT6Xvtdk6sZWwkV7xNd4YBr6ZuKKt6h"
157;"1GH1H5zHYPkZxehXMzrUEUbYm8NVY79SWd"
157;"1779BrCmaiva7qx8UykY8GgJ18CHNPf1UF"
155;"121SRQJ1dTeJqb3G3x1hEq8ycs86WUmp88"
153;"1EjjEEAMQQTKcfpTs5zFA9xF69zrRqQ212"
152;"1PujTSpgKtw8gsLWLbxTjShA6k67CgBPQm"
150;"156NuKWrWCFHaBmyXjWqgihyAWduVtQxhZ"
150;"1716E8woCCVMFzmUWetqfK4rbTAvX9xfJ8"
150;"1Q3gAEHNe4y8UWNE9z6WtBrtZocgTeV6Vf"
146;"19drsTcWBkygxk5DJAPeeQqCtGxpavDj66"
145;"157wzc9C8UY68HUnwF2WLxoeUcGcFxAwgc"
141;"1BCh6GtanggqHKD9nHmm3NmDwBMf7KmG4X"
141;"3EKdAKLiZv94LJQHjr2L2JtHxsKW28Wiwr"
140;"19cK43WiDpntvu7YCi1cEMNFEGdwsjYBpn"
140;"1JSh6xDMjoRS52YesGGciMy6pvChkkKDs7"
140;"1Jygx6dmpjhrFgfAqJSCXu5CD7NqHcr652"
136;"1AScRhqdXMrJyxNmjEapMZi1PLFsqmLquG"
136;"1G7k2mkUoz25jiSxeBuP97WmAst6NWQC5Z"
126;"13Ch5nWBgsV4NoB7snCHT7uPiyFFfS5hQh"
126;"185MQZojeqtDo13pjDUe8PNr5owtqGuPZJ"
125;"1Hc6U7UmVD3Wa7hJXRpksJa6ttCjZzageR"
125;"1FcrSziChjfWX1dS55Db6rJSevx5QbZyWc"
125;"17KUHqLhY88166MtT645PCGeWCsQRyFe6m"
125;"1KNR5jnSRv3CmvR7xzkTzR1oFwo1UCB8Fd"
122;"14TvaNdEuPEiM5Hsyo2vsZJiZhHyehhJKQ"
121;"18AZp93AoaEgQPK6VYFPCNgWazi7K58Bpa"
121;"1ANSmDXk9F3VhV1BsCvLbLTtLJW3XSUChG"
121;"18Pjdm8RuHfBPgrx3974LHZjcVx7qmFo2y"
120;"15YBST9Kpf8a5s5o9pgSiQ82o1mfd7kuZE"
119;"1Q456FcECHd9y8touwjFBsoRh9PJjrrV9B"
119;"1cqUCP8YTSRKsQLnsPsooDLuYmWXwyBBf"
119;"1P83WT5TWiJGUAk6X3bwktf4CUQh3j3tHy"
118;"1DFTeAaVtUuNKU9y9fyU3YVF3Bken787Mp"
118;"18N4PSaqno1D6RXignBynUJ8zkW6yBrrem"
117;"1L4pBeLzSPMCKVBwGFWdyjdgc1UEuR8pdF"
117;"1P2xfghmu23PfVuZ5NsfLAH55dJhJHUCwU"
117;"1GPzHTbC4HgcmbAcMGKt5YWAdBstugymux"
116;"1KkU92vjswHyAwnHbGjdjQExVvKkT1E9M8"
115;"18FRmr7nvjcmzG9KPFxNNZvB2c4Pbpk4E2"
114;"1DZa7UuMFM9BbFpoZojhm5egNqQJt3Mjm1"
112;"1GiaJ66uDehJFPn49NUPSLYQiktxNuFYzQ"
112;"1K87H4v2dNGfh9HsAmrgpWc7NxwoFH7YP7"
111;"1ENkKLJgZ84m3JucHFJWuF74rDopt4gXNt"
110;"1BVjFnAeZWw682Lhsg2P4xNewAkiJwod75"
110;"1LBmnR2mDb2fmf5RPGRSZCyPZuGEFAxCf2"
109;"16bYBW15jDq9tYbi6sFwohPfoY7bo8yAhQ"
109;"143dyQPihcCTEay7rtdwbvMckw6b848wUD"
109;"1K7Ufy1M21ixNt6B66f2xsFe81WkyKRKcP"
108;"195Q1un8jy6wZrWBQQhJzasoFaMZ9cG7au"
108;"19YiURKAttASeAJKbAENaNaK6VAGNtGe1f"
108;"16KkY8JwdUpZySYzL2EU8iCF3WsHoxkpgs"
107;"1FHEyk2Ap7p7SbvpcLtaHo34tXwjWiJ1H7"
107;"1NqoSisHuBiFy1atUeCWnrqnmwYeCSKRAj"
106;"1HwmtqFtN1a5SgUDh2MxFwTZe2PYFDQXWz"
106;"12pLcrHFBZJckT6YpjcivTg8kW5rGMFna1"
106;"12EE5Fbm6PN2So5rhbd4Up5W2nt47N7vYy"
105;"15sgzRZpXpz29iTHSFg9151WTagaK4JMXG"
105;"1San1XgvyDsBEvK95HfY9ADw5u3dvcCB7"
105;"15seisBmwcbhBDHwkFXeQET4m5CGfY878R"
105;"1CyERErm7eWHX5mmeuZnTYKYN28WweBhkh"
104;"17AmSb8a3JxDxG6cbq1kuAjeTseHzV8T2x"
104;"12GMZRE5cE1MGVZ3LMjF9GEB6qEkvM7gT9"
104;"18LooxAX9pZA3WaWrW6jL9gA1dNrFLHBGH"
104;"16TE2gpJWA3hN1bEguQh5ku6zok8SfK36y"
102;"1MBng9BQGFHAkeX5T12FGQbzDw3bjUup3X"
102;"17X9qF1QxpbnQ2LjLZ8G8PqLyp3mPUTfJA"
102;"1MsaKCKwksA2wYDMpuhC2GFyYXvjZjv1Au"
102;"17CGGXnTYBtWcFa1AvJ3CkhqFpfbACZpP4"
101;"1GdyDJkVD63TJhG8sCJV2fsZo1E4cVg4UB"
100;"15wZrEymWgY8F5qCfa1tfbc6gqK2Qtzd7Z"
100;"1DcKtPuiUHBAjQsWn34tL7aaCh3CzfzSXU"

[amaclin]

Here's another list as provided by a IRC member. The left number is not the number of TXs, but rather the number of created UTXOs from a certain address, currently sitting unconfirmed in the mempool:

1) 1250;"13hB6VxWn52YuzXJJ9FE6Y7NVnT5CtRjmD"
2) 1225;"1FoXbDsvXgwVoFwkszaZjkuRRDADoWTygX"
3) 1114;"37p9pUugydmoLpQyFLLqGAgjWmUFERa1Pq"

Seems to me, at least two of top-3 addresses belongs to one person/service  
https://blockchain.info/address/13hB6VxWn52YuzXJJ9FE6Y7NVnT5CtRjmD
https://blockchain.info/address/37p9pUugydmoLpQyFLLqGAgjWmUFERa1Pq

[1Referee]

Here's another list as provided by a IRC member. The left number is not the number of TXs, but rather the number of created UTXOs from a certain address, currently sitting unconfirmed in the mempool:

1) 1250;"13hB6VxWn52YuzXJJ9FE6Y7NVnT5CtRjmD"
2) 1225;"1FoXbDsvXgwVoFwkszaZjkuRRDADoWTygX"
3) 1114;"37p9pUugydmoLpQyFLLqGAgjWmUFERa1Pq"

Seems to me, at least two of top-3 addresses belongs to one person/service  
https://blockchain.info/address/13hB6VxWn52YuzXJJ9FE6Y7NVnT5CtRjmD
https://blockchain.info/address/37p9pUugydmoLpQyFLLqGAgjWmUFERa1Pq

All transactions posted by Lauda are more or less being operated by one entity (you just didn't want to browse through the entire list ). I tend to say that it is coming from (wealthy) BU enthusiasts, but I can't back it up with solid proof unless I find important connections.
---
If at some point is proven that these addresses are in fact just troll spamming, isn't there a way for pools or nodes to blacklist coins coming from these addresses? I know it's a hated measure, but at least it would give these troll spammers less incentive to continue their nasty practices.

[amaclin]

All transactions posted by Lauda are more or less being operated by one entity
(you just didn't want to browse through the entire list ).

I am not interested in such investigations. I am ready to spend 15 seconds for checking
only the couple addresses.

I tend to say that it is coming from (wealthy) BU enthusiasts,

I am far away from Core/BU/etc religious wars. I even do not want to comment anything about it.

Only one word: everyone anytime is looking for his profit, not for the bright future for everyone.
And any ammo are good in this fighting.

[jeezy]

Please be careful with the pitchforks.

A small portion of the so called "spam" some of you guys reported is due to Komodos Notarization mechanism. Read up here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1605144.0

You can check the notary node addresses here: https://www.komodometrics.com/

13swCVuXeZhWkmwEXod83Mv2YWKVqYeMVS is mine. 

[Lauda]

I tend to say that it is coming from (wealthy) BU enthusiasts,

I am far away from Core/BU/etc religious wars. I even do not want to comment anything about it.

It isn't really religious. One side is by far superior to the other. Why else would several entities resort to mass spamming to 'prove a point'?

A small portion of the so called "spam" some of you guys reported is due to Komodos Notarization mechanism. Read up here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1605144.0

Komodo is wasting my storage space, therefore this is spam for me. I do not want this "Notarization mechanism". Figure out a better way of creating less bloat for whatever it is that you want to do.

[pooya87]

~

Please stop spamming in this topic about Komodo. one of you already said this if you read the topic before spamming, and there are already too many posts about Komodo Notarization in this board already.

I am not going to remove your post but this is the last one i will let exist on this topic. sorry!

[cellard]

All transactions posted by Lauda are more or less being operated by one entity
(you just didn't want to browse through the entire list ).

I am not interested in such investigations. I am ready to spend 15 seconds for checking
only the couple addresses.

I tend to say that it is coming from (wealthy) BU enthusiasts,

I am far away from Core/BU/etc religious wars. I even do not want to comment anything about it.

Only one word: everyone anytime is looking for his profit, not for the bright future for everyone.
And any ammo are good in this fighting.

We should not just ignore the ongoing agenda by big pocketed BUcoiners to try to shut down Core. Since they cannot outcode them, they resort to cheap, brute force approaches, such as bribing miners (Roger Ver) and spamming the network with trash then claiming the fees are too high or its too slow (Roger Ver again). Also trying to ban those that address the constant bullshit in /r/btc (does Ver ring a bell?) We have the evidence.
Big pocketed Roger Ver is using his money and influence to constantly push all those shitty softwares. We saw it with XT, Classic, now BU. Anything goes. Those are also promoted by CIA-compromised Gavin amongs other characters.

[amaclin]

It isn't really religious.

It is.
dispute between the adherents of segwit and bigblock for me like a dispute
between Catholics and Protestants who better trust in God

[Lauda]

It isn't really religious.

It is.
dispute between the adherents of segwit and bigblock for me like a dispute
between Catholics and Protestants who better trust in God

The majority of the the technical community has agreed that Segwit is the best way forward (which is thoroughly tested one one side). On the other side, you have untested and radical change to the underlying theory called "emergent consensus". Either you understand both and you don't trust, or you don't understand them and you trust either side. Only the latter can be compared to religion.

Please stop spamming in this topic about Komodo. one of you already said this if you read the topic before spamming, and there are already too many posts about Komodo Notarization in this board already.

You should probably make a table of used addresses, TX counts and identifiers (if known). In this case, we have identified one cause of SPAM and you could mark it as such in said table.

[amaclin]

The majority of the the technical community

LOL
This kind of majority costs less than nothing in bitcoin world.

The majority of single black women of Texas thinks...
The majority of our site visitors...
The majority of...

You should probably make a table of used addresses, TX counts and identifiers (if known).
In this case, we have identified one cause of SPAM and you could mark it as such in said table.

I am thinking about writing a program which would count my transactions (both send and receive)
in the blockchain (count and total size). Seems to me that I also utilize several megabytes on your
hard drive  

[Lauda]

The majority of the the technical community

LOL
This kind of majority costs less than nothing in bitcoin world.

I think your language deficiency is making you confused.

Here's another list as provided by a IRC member. The left number is not the number of TXs, but rather the number of created UTXOs from a certain address, currently sitting unconfirmed in the mempool:

Code:

707;"3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f"

This one is now at 1.5k unconfirmed transactions.

[amaclin]

707;"3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f"
This one is now at 1.5k unconfirmed transactions.

https://blockchain.info/address/3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
https://tradeblock.com/bitcoin/address/3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
very long chain of storing some unknown datas
from my point of view - this is blockchain spam.
but our rules allow such things. no complaining. just eating my popcorn  

btw. cat anybody explain me why these transactions with a fee 25 sat/b were confirmed today?

[shorena]

-snip-
btw. cat anybody explain me why these transactions with a fee 25 sat/b were confirmed today?

Its not uncommon, people just focus too much on the first few blocks. With patience way lower fees than 100 or 200 sat/b are possible. See e.g. cointape[1], 34k of todays confirmed transactions paid 1-20 sat/b.

[1] https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

edit: typo

[Xester]

-snip-
btw. cat anybody explain me why these transactions with a fee 25 sat/b were confirmed today?

Its not uncommon, people just focus too much on the first few blocks. With patients way lower fees than 100 or 200 sat/b are possible. See e.g. cointape[1], 34k of todays confirmed transactions paid 1-20 sat/b.

[1] https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

I have not tried setting that very low confirmation fee. The lowest fee I have set is at blockchain.info, in that site my lowest fee would be around 1500 satoshi. Other sites especially the gambling sites and exchanges are setting high miner fee when we withdraw that ranges from 20,000 satoshi to 50,000 satoshi. Next time I will try to set a very small amount and observe how long will it take before my  transaction is confirmed.

[amaclin]

Its not uncommon, people just focus too much on the first few blocks. With patients
way lower fees than 100 or 200 sat/b are possible. See e.g. cointape[1], 34k of todays
confirmed transactions paid 1-20 sat/b.

1) CPFP
2) ViaBTC/F2Pool/etc accelerators
3) Transactions with priority 57,600,000+ ( https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees )

None of these three reasons matches our case.
So. We do see that Bitfury has its own unknown reasons to prioritize transactions from 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f

You can see that these transactions are placed in the beginning of the block.
So, they were prioritized in Bitfury mempool.

[Herbert2020]

Its not uncommon, people just focus too much on the first few blocks. With patients
way lower fees than 100 or 200 sat/b are possible. See e.g. cointape[1], 34k of todays
confirmed transactions paid 1-20 sat/b.

1) CPFP
2) ViaBTC/F2Pool/etc accelerators
3) Transactions with priority 57,600,000+ ( https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees )

None of these three reasons matches our case.
So. We do see that Bitfury has its own unknown reasons to prioritize transactions from 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f

You can see that these transactions are placed in the beginning of the block.
So, they were prioritized in Bitfury mempool.

just a thought but have you checked the OP_RETURN part of these transactions to see what they are storing? they may be doing some sort of weird data storage thing on blockchain. although it is way too many transactions!

here is on:

Code:

6a 2819c7a233526da80a876597433b12feb263f04151c72c87c71115afada920f6bcffffffffffffffff

[amaclin]

just a thought but have you checked the OP_RETURN part of these transactions

I have much more interesting things in my life rather than checking OP_RETURN datas in thousands of transactions 

[layoutph]

This is so lame, spending multiple 0.0001btc just to clog bitcoin blockchain? To fillup the whole blocks? This is serious. This might be a propaganda of other altcoin or from Bitcoin Unlimited.

Is there anything we can do to stop this?

[dinofelis]

This is so lame, spending multiple 0.0001btc just to clog bitcoin blockchain? To fillup the whole blocks? This is serious. This might be a propaganda of other altcoin or from Bitcoin Unlimited.

Is there anything we can do to stop this?

If you "find a way to stop this", you've just rendered bitcoin not permissionless any more. 

[Lauda]

Mempool is practically empty right now.

[shorena]

Mempool is practically empty right now.

Yep, fee suggestions by cointape[1] still high though. Still too many idiots not lowering their fees.

[1] https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

[pooya87]

[1] https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

this is not such a good reference for setting fee anymore, i have been watching it and it has been pretty high even though mempool was empty and other resources have been reporting a lower fee
https://api.blockcypher.com/v1/btc/main
also the same with Electrum, it reports a decent and low fee/byte

Adding two new sets:
1 satoshi outputs! (thanks to BTC.TOP mining pool for wasting block space)
https://blockchain.info/address/1Enjoy1C4bYBr3tN4sMKxvvJDqG8NkdR4Z
https://blockchain.info/address/1SochiWwFFySPjQoi2biVftXn8NRPCSQC

example tx: https://blockchain.info/tx/75cb4ded9c80289dd581266ff2ab2da51fd72a406ff46270db8e86af1cf1bdd6

[amaclin]

1 satoshi inputs! (thanks to BTC.TOP mining pool for wasting block space)

outputs.
these transactions were created and broadcasted 3 years ago

[pooya87]

an oldy but a goodie: 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
This address (most probably) belongs to BitFury.
so far this key has made 142102 transactions with very low fee of 25 satoshi/byte and BitFury includes these inside the blocks they mine themselves.

for example:
https://blockchain.info/block-index/1477998 block has been mined on 2017-04-15 10:04:57 while mempool size was 30.8 MB (24.6 K tx). and worst part is that this blocks (and similar blocks) contain a large number of these transactions (in this case 1066 transaction or 411000 bytes - nearly half the block size).

[rizzlarolla]

an oldy but a goodie: 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
This address (most probably) belongs to BitFury.
so far this key has made 142102 transactions with very low fee of 25 satoshi/byte and BitFury includes these inside the blocks they mine themselves.

for example:
https://blockchain.info/block-index/1477998 block has been mined on 2017-04-15 10:04:57 while mempool size was 30.8 MB (24.6 K tx). and worst part is that this blocks (and similar blocks) contain a large number of these transactions (in this case 1066 transaction or 411000 bytes - nearly half the block size).

Bitfury use 1% of total bitcoin blockspace/hashpower to send nothing back and forth.

quote from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1835475.msg18270006#msg18270006
"Last 10 blocks mined by bitfury contain 1.147550mb of tx's from 3QQ address. That is 11.4% of their blockspace. (last 24 hour)
bitfury have 10% of Bitcoin's total hashpower.
11.4% blockspace of 10% Bitcoin's total hashpower = 1.14% of Bitcoins total hashpower mining fake tx's from 1 address.
1 address sending zero bitcoin is using 1% of Bitcoin's total resource's"

In the thread linked above there is some discussion about this addy. CKminer chips in, but explains very little.
Anyone else think Bitfury need to explain?

Link to addy https://blockchain.info/address/3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f?offset=0&filter=6

[Quickseller]

an oldy but a goodie: 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
This address (most probably) belongs to BitFury.
so far this key has made 142102 transactions with very low fee of 25 satoshi/byte and BitFury includes these inside the blocks they mine themselves.

for example:
https://blockchain.info/block-index/1477998 block has been mined on 2017-04-15 10:04:57 while mempool size was 30.8 MB (24.6 K tx). and worst part is that this blocks (and similar blocks) contain a large number of these transactions (in this case 1066 transaction or 411000 bytes - nearly half the block size).

Bitfury use 1% of total bitcoin blockspace/hashpower to send nothing back and forth.

quote from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1835475.msg18270006#msg18270006
"Last 10 blocks mined by bitfury contain 1.147550mb of tx's from 3QQ address. That is 11.4% of their blockspace. (last 24 hour)
bitfury have 10% of Bitcoin's total hashpower.
11.4% blockspace of 10% Bitcoin's total hashpower = 1.14% of Bitcoins total hashpower mining fake tx's from 1 address.
1 address sending zero bitcoin is using 1% of Bitcoin's total resource's"

In the thread linked above there is some discussion about this addy. CKminer chips in, but explains very little.
Anyone else think Bitfury need to explain?

Link to addy https://blockchain.info/address/3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f?offset=0&filter=6

It is possible that these transactions contain some kind of information that is being used by some other entity.

I remember a few months back, there was a thread about an address spamming 0.00001BTC, but it turned out that the transactions were acting as some sort of 'anchor' to an altcoin.

[pooya87]

~
Anyone else think Bitfury need to explain?
~

i say, yes they need to explain, specially because it is abusing the power they have as a miner to "ignore other people's transactions" and include their own without any cost (they receive the tx fee and spend nothing).

It is possible that these transactions contain some kind of information that is being used by some other entity.

I remember a few months back, there was a thread about an address spamming 0.00001BTC, but it turned out that the transactions were acting as some sort of 'anchor' to an altcoin.

i believe you have Komodo notary nodes in mind.
and i am still going to call them both spam since these are abusing the rules.

[rizzlarolla]

So far today Bitfury have filled over 1 block with 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's sending 0 btc.

13 blocks have been found by Bitfury. (since 00.00gmt) 
6 of those blocks contain no 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's
7 of those blocks contain a total of 2625 transactions from/to 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
0 bitcoin is sent in any of those 2625 tx's
2625 tx's @ 286 - 289 bytes = 1,017,187 bytes, or 1.02 full blocks.
2625 tx's sending 0 bitcoin is getting on for 10% of Bitfury blockspace
10% of Bitfury blockspace = ~1% of all todays conformation's.

No other mining pool has included 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's in any other blocks today.

[-ck]

So far today Bitfury have filled over 1 block with 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's sending 0 btc.

13 blocks have been found by Bitfury. (since 00.00gmt)  
6 of those blocks contain no 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's
7 of those blocks contain a total of 2625 transactions from/to 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
0 bitcoin is sent in any of those 2625 tx's
2625 tx's @ 286 - 289 bytes = 1,017,187 bytes, or 1.02 full blocks.
2625 tx's sending 0 bitcoin is getting on for 10% of Bitfury blockspace
10% of Bitfury blockspace = ~1% of all todays conformation's.

No other mining pool has included 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's in any other blocks today.

Maybe they're using a covert asicboost of their own and these are the random transactions they're generating to do it with...

[Astonuse]

So far today Bitfury have filled over 1 block with 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's sending 0 btc.

13 blocks have been found by Bitfury. (since 00.00gmt)  
6 of those blocks contain no 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's
7 of those blocks contain a total of 2625 transactions from/to 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
0 bitcoin is sent in any of those 2625 tx's
2625 tx's @ 286 - 289 bytes = 1,017,187 bytes, or 1.02 full blocks.
2625 tx's sending 0 bitcoin is getting on for 10% of Bitfury blockspace
10% of Bitfury blockspace = ~1% of all todays conformation's.

No other mining pool has included 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f tx's in any other blocks today.

Maybe they're using a covert asicboost of their own and these are the random transactions they're generating to do it with...

But why do they choose this very obvious spam transaction to include?

[pooya87]

Memory pool is empty, yaaay.
but is it really?

let's take a look. https://blockchain.info/unconfirmed-transactions shows 3540 transactions in memory pool.
now let's take a closer look.


That is 18 Megabytes of transaction!

now let's look some more:
https://blockchain.info/tx/88c032357d6b0567756cc74515175e83f930a1b5e2d821ba69b1d11c4032ef91
hmm! 59145 (bytes) with 10 sat/B fee.
is there more?
sure there is, AntPool just mined a whole lot of these https://blockchain.info/block-index/1483607
Number Of Transactions in this block = 102

the worst part is, this is not the first time and won't be the last and that is only one block mined by one mining pool, there are more being mined by others.

[amaclin]

Memory pool is empty, yaaay.
but is it really?

There is a service (i think an exchange but do not know more) which combines its small
utxo once(?) per week, sending a lot of transactions with 200 inputs and one output
Something like this:
https://tradeblock.com/bitcoin/address/3PKSECRWUD5ZgJyswjRVHoufQbwnUVH1M6

This is not "an attack example" I think. They try to do it on weekends when the fees are low.

This is just reducing the number of utxo in their wallet and moving the funds from
user deposit addresses to cold/hot wallet.

[amaclin]

https://blockchain.info/address/1NzZrgTMAzR92pxNZYtKv57RnF3J51MCm9

one another crazy blockchain spamer  

the interesting thing is that a lot of transactions generated from this address have starts with "0"

01918bc7a54aec8a327db4382e4e6a4d5405180b2209b000731155c8fca969a8
0198004b28a696d64f293efae463c8d23df97291347bca3ca15aeb50b31b05ea
01935c62b140f096e5315c24bdb481bc4d6afa7a35e2b3d9fe89b698a38a4348
017ac7a834dbbb3f421ebacd247efc3b6b6ce81adbea896ed57b95d8e8d9515a
01fc5bb2dd0e13afd1480dbcf3e43636c53914fabc3fc7e6a69445955cd66056
019b24bd4e8a5e15dac01a3f369f1e6e6546a81dc00c016a32ebf88656cc3c6e
013a753775cb1483bcae0860407ad7334bc167b0ff02adb2d89be34397124469
and so on...

[pooya87]

Ding Ding Ding ... i think we have a winner here
if we exclude that one block which was full and only had 1 transaction (well technically 2 with coinbase) this one with 75 transactions comes a close second.
https://blockchain.info/block/00000000000000000141b02fc9d3fcf602a0946f4f66377597f7a51cc98afd82?show_adv=true

[freebutcaged]

They are trying to mix and consolidate bitcoins by mining the transactions themselves and getting the fees, it could be an advanced method of mixing coins, losing tracks and confusing any blockchain analysis.

[pooya87]

They are trying to mix and consolidate bitcoins by mining the transactions themselves and getting the fees, it could be an advanced method of mixing coins, losing tracks and confusing any blockchain analysis.

[in case you are talking about my last 2 comments] meh, i think what amaclin said above about them being an exchange service or similar service with lots of transactions is more plausible.
and i am thinking about removing the entry from OP i can find any more information on it because as much as it is weird to see 10 s/b transactions being confirmed they don't fall under typical spam criteria of useless transaction.

[amaclin]

an oldy but a goodie: 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
This address (most probably) belongs to BitFury.
so far this key has made 142102 transactions with very low fee of 25 satoshi/byte and BitFury includes these inside the blocks they mine themselves.

This is Georgia (ex-USSR republic, not an US state) document stamping service
https://naprweb.reestri.gov.ge/#/view/14300198
https://blockchain.info/tx/de64826fee8facfca05a85fa7fc819ae47f0f851b9d6860019adf02a2d0bcc3c
(As far as I know ButFury has some relation to Georgia)

Proof:
https://i.imgur.com/U9hgKE6.png

[BitWhale]

The only question need to be answered is WHY?
What the hell is their purpose? To bring down bitcoin? This could be a work of someone who is really being stepped by bitcoin and what are those? Banks? Alts? Government? Gold investors? They even use a large amount of money just to make other transactions slower. They sure want some bitcoin user to give up using it.

If i had to guess, their reasoning is to push the community to make a decision on the blockchain debate. It's starting to get to the point now where if we don't do something it's going to cause bitcoin way more harm than good.

[GetClams.com]

The only question need to be answered is WHY?
What the hell is their purpose? To bring down bitcoin? This could be a work of someone who is really being stepped by bitcoin and what are those? Banks? Alts? Government? Gold investors? They even use a large amount of money just to make other transactions slower. They sure want some bitcoin user to give up using it.

If i had to guess, their reasoning is to push the community to make a decision on the blockchain debate. It's starting to get to the point now where if we don't do something it's going to cause bitcoin way more harm than good.

I think it will have the intended effect if that is what this is. Lets just get it done for goodness sakes.

[pooya87]

an oldy but a goodie: 3QQB6AWxaga6wTs6Xwq8FYppgrGinGu15f
This address (most probably) belongs to BitFury.
so far this key has made 142102 transactions with very low fee of 25 satoshi/byte and BitFury includes these inside the blocks they mine themselves.

This is Georgia (ex-USSR republic, not an US state) document stamping service
https://naprweb.reestri.gov.ge/#/view/14300198
https://blockchain.info/tx/de64826fee8facfca05a85fa7fc819ae47f0f851b9d6860019adf02a2d0bcc3c
(As far as I know ButFury has some relation to Georgia)

Proof:
https://i.imgur.com/U9hgKE6.png

very good find.
i also found this news from a year ago:
“We are launching the property rights registration project for Georgian citizens so that they can register property on the blockchain,” said Valery Vavilov, chief executive of BitFury.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2016/04/21/republic-of-georgia-to-pilot-land-titling-on-blockchain-with-economist-hernando-de-soto-bitfury/#44da340744da

[pooya87]

i found a not so bad article regarding the spam attack. it is worth a read.
i wished it was more specific about the details specially for recent months, not sticking mostly to the old self-admitted and way-too-obvious spam attacks of 2015.

anyways here is the link and if anyone has any more details about his work please share it here.
https://bravenewcoin.com/news/bitcoin-spam-attack-stressed-network-for-at-least-18-months-claims-software-developer/

There is evidence to indicate that Bitcoin’s network has been suffering a far greater workload than needed recently, according to the developer behind the bitcoin analytics platform OXT. The French developer, Laurent, told BraveNewCoin that he is “95% confident” that the 2015 “Stress Test” and “Flood Attack” events affected the number of bitcoin transactions as recently as January 2017.

#MobyDick

more https://twitter.com/LaurentMT/status/886630294329204740

[pooya87]

although the following belongs to BCH but i think it is interesting to see how a spam attack works in real time against bitcoin (BCH is the exact copy inheriting everything) and since it is on an empty mempool so you could clearly single out the spam transactions.



at all times BCH mempool looks like what you see on the right side of the above chart (the flat line), mostly an empty mempool with no more than 200 kB of transactions in it mostly around 50 kB.
the interesting thing about this is how it is performed.
- it starts with an initial injection of a large number of transactions (265,000) with a total size of 51 MB
- the total time it takes is less than 30 minutes. that is ~150 spam/second
- another wave also starts 6 hours later that time with half the amount (163,000-31MB)
- this entire spam cost only a 100 bucks.
this is how the 2017 spam attack basically worked. of course ratio-wise it is not comparable (they injected 51000 kilobytes in a mempool that only had 200 kilobytes in it)

another interesting thing which is mostly BCH related is:
- it created a fee market! that "200 kB max" regular transactions that you always see started paying higher fees to get their transactions confirmed. in case you have forgotten BCH has 32 MB blocks...


- and finally looking at the way mempool drops it shows miners are not picking up any more than 1 to 1.5 MB of transaction data to put in the blocks they find (apart from 1 that picked up large amounts in 2 goes).

[pooya87]

It's been a while since I've updated this topic but yesterday the mempool grew and with it the fees went up. Which is a normal thing when price volatility increases but when looking at how it all increased, things look start looking suspicious.

[Speculation]
In a natural mempool size growth we don't have a straight line because not everyone jumps on board of sending transactions at the same time specially not for a long period of time. It happens in "bursts", in other terms there should be a lot of different rates in the chart. Like this picture of a small rise from earlier this month.


However in a spam attack the attacker injects a large volume of spam transactions into the mempool usually at a fixed rate so the chart looks like the following picture which is from Nov. 14 to 15 over ~8 hours:


(Note that the count chart also shows the same thing but not as cleanly since with each new block the count drops but the "slope" is fixed which points to the fixed rate at which transactions entered mempool).

From there, it's just a matter of keeping the mempool full and preventing it from going back down to keep the fees up while avoiding a larger cost on the spammer (due to ever rising fee if the spam rate was sustained). Usually regular users do most of the work there and the spammer doesn't have to spend much:

[NotATether]

From there, it's just a matter of keeping the mempool full and preventing it from going back down to keep the fees up while avoiding a larger cost on the spammer (due to ever rising fee if the spam rate was sustained). Usually regular users do most of the work there and the spammer doesn't have to spend much

It will take about 8-16 hours for all these transactions to clear up.

There are almost 200vMB of these transactions in the mempool at the moment.

A block is mined every 10 minutes and can pack about 2-4vMB of transactions at once. So assuming the worst case scenario of 2vMB, we have 12 vMB packed up every hour, or ~17 hours to clear up the mempoo, It's half that amount if block sizes grow to 4vMB.

All this assuming that the number of new transactions goes down starting now.