2013-05-02 CNN Money: How porn links and Ben Bernanke snuck into Bitcoin's code

[tacotime]

I don't see it posted yet...

How porn links and Ben Bernanke snuck into Bitcoin's code

Here's a little-known quirk of cyber currency Bitcoin: There are coded messages hidden in the ledger that track bitcoin transactions. Most are innocuous, but this week, the discovery of a malicious transmission filled with porn links set the Bitcoin community abuzz.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/02/technology/security/bitcoin-porn/

[noedaRDH]

I don't see it posted yet...

How porn links and Ben Bernanke snuck into Bitcoin's code

Here's a little-known quirk of cyber currency Bitcoin: There are coded messages hidden in the ledger that track bitcoin transactions. Most are innocuous, but this week, the discovery of a malicious transmission filled with porn links set the Bitcoin community abuzz.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/05/02/technology/security/bitcoin-porn/

Only be a matter of time before TPTB injects the ledger with terrorist plots and frame Bitcoins as a mains to communicate and coordinate terrorism.

[Herodes]

Didn't even read the article. How much stupidity the press is serving us - and CNN of all outlets. It's a disgrace. But I guess they have a certain agenda.

[Gabi]

FUD detected.

[Severian]

CNN of all outlets.

CNN is the modern version of TASS or Pravda when they were Party mouthpieces.

[WiW]

The porn links are concealed in hexadecimal code, and a decoder is needed to translate them into English. In other words, you'd really have to be looking for it.

Hold on, let me write my own decoder. With my decoder, you will see that some CNN Money articles in fact decode to porn links and terrorist messaging boards. I'll blame their website for hosting links in their "code".

[Mike Hearn]

Maybe you should actually read the article before making assumptions?

I spent some time working with the journalist who wrote this piece, as did Patrick from the Foundation. It started out as a fairly vague "zomg child porn in the block chain" piece but ended up much more thoughtful. I was pretty happy with how this came out given the potential for a nasty reputational stain if it had gone badly. As is, the headline was rather mild (talking about porn vs child porn) and it doesn't seem to have been picked up by other outlets.