Classification of possible attacks on Bitcoin

[krishnapramod]

Found this on Reddit, classification of possible attacks on Bitcoin, probability of them happening in the next 10 years, and the extent of damage these attacks could do. Bitcoin's antifragility has already been put to test through a few legal attacks/ban, numerous PR/social attacks/FUD/negative news, ongoing financial attacks/forks/state-sponsored cryptos, and hybrid attacks by malicious actors who for their own individual gains want to slowdown Bitcoin adoption/development by trying to manipulate a part of the community to support their forked altcoins.



Bitcoin does have its own share of weaknesses that could be exploited, be it spam attacks, 51% attack, Sybil attack, DoS attacks, and timejacking. There is a probability that some of these attacks might happen in the next ten years and the extent of damage would depend on the type of attack. Compared to technical/cyberattacks, I think the majority of attacks on Bitcoin in the next ten years would be legal, social, financial, and hybrid in nature.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7cht20/classification_of_attacks_on_bitcoin_oc/

[1713911291]

1713911291

[squatz1]

Only attacks that I can see are already happening now, which included the legal attacks through regulation of Bitcoin by governments and such. The other sort of attack I can see is like the thing that is happening now, which is the attacks by BCH and Roger Ver and friends to try to takeover the network.

These attacks are really the only ones which can happen. Other ones are unlikely, the public just has to be taught about Bitcoin and the rest will die out.

But I do appreciate the lists.

[salihno71]

Modern technology is inherently prone to various types of attacks. It almost seems to be by design. Since cryptos are using this infrastructure, they're also sharing the same weaknesses. Maybe future will bring better medium for blockchain than internet. We will see.

[Burnsey777]

The questions that spring to mind.
Why should entities attack BTC? .......Who would benefit from these attacks.
What is their motivation?

My thoughts:
Bitcoin appeared at a time of crisis in the global financial system.
The 8 Page White Paper,and the pseudonym of the writer/s showed only a glimpse of the critical thinking that has gone into this disruptive paradigm shift in a whole range of disciplines starting with finance and the meaning of money.
The brightest minds have been attracted to the flame of change and massive innovation that is Bitcoin Core,for the good of the whole of humanity.
The enemy of this change are the attackers,whether directly or by proxy.
Open Source technology is anathema to the elites and oligarchs,who feed on power and control.
This is why The Hydra will always be looking for ways to suborn Bitcoin....The Battle will be neverending.
The Genie that is Bitcoin is never going back into the Bottle?
Yet remember:The story of Alladdin and his Lamp,The Genie was tricked and he did return to his prison.
How do you raise large amounts of capital to develope Bitcoin,without the strings of centralisation?
Our mission is to educate both ourselves and other likeminded people about this life changing Disruptor that is Bitcoin,and take responsibility for securing and becoming our own individual bank.
Conversation is education.......spread the Gospel,and creed that is Bitcoin.
PS:Have the 0.000001% already bought their holdings in Bitcoin?

[8270thNinja]

The Classification of Bitcoin attacks are long though. Well, Bitcoin Developers will not stop to at least put a patch to Bitcoin's flaw. One of the famous attack which can be found anywhere , mainstream media, here on the BCT forum and other forums as well is the PR attacks which always give BTC a bad name. PR attacks can be the most easiest, cost-less form of attack, Big Companies and well-known personalities usually executes it and they can easily manipulate the price.

[aoluain]

very interesting article and makes for interesting and concerning reading.

We can be confident enough that the developers are moving to secure
the network at the same advancement as possible threats, hopefully
staying one step ahead.

Something which isnt on that list is the threat from "quantum Computers"
is this a possibility for the future where a super computer can attack the
blockchain itself?

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609408/quantum-computers-pose-imminent-threat-to-bitcoin-security/

[omashi]

interesting

[Aamir1]

Well, it is a great list actually, but there are some points which i think are not correct, like a ban from major powers like US, China etc will bring a medium damage and i think it is not like that. The damage will probably be very high if even one of them put a ban on Bitcoin in coming years. Recently, when China only shut down exchanges, the effect we saw was quite noticeable, so if the country totally bans bitcoin then i wonder what the effect would be on the community and the price of bitcoin.
Actually as stated by someone else already, some of these attacks are already happening around, like PR attacks. People put fake news about bitcoin to make people panic, and sometimes known personalities try to manipulate the minds of people by saying negative words about it. So we are already in the process of attacks, and hopefully they will get reduced with the time instead of increasing.

[pearlmen]

All this attacks are sure to come for project like bitcoin. I will say the most potent of all the attacks illustrated is the one from within and that is the one from both forks and the spamming attacks. Someone who is not techy savvy will not know how to spam the network to make things difficult neither will he be able to ensure there is a forked version of bitcoin. Its when all this inner fork are successful, before the one coming from external factors starting to take prominence such as the legal attack and every other attacks that want to come its way.

[fanbeila]

I think that the most dangerous attack in the upcoming years may be due to cyber attacks by using Quantum computers.It is said that quantum computers would be able to read the private keys of a bitcoin wallet with the public key itself.If that happens,then it would have a devastating effect over the bitcoin network.Its said that core developers are working from now itself to fix that issue.

[mOgliE]

The table is quite impressive..

Though, unless I am mistaken, these are just possible scenarii, but without any "real" test, right? I do not suggest we should kill a developper to see the overcome of his/her death but still, for some scenarii, without any concrete application, I think we cannot measure in a realistic manner the impact such attacks may have...

[voztata]

The Classification of Bitcoin attacks are long though. Well, Bitcoin Developers will not stop to at least put a patch to Bitcoin's flaw. One of the famous attack which can be found anywhere , mainstream media, here on the BCT forum and other forums as well is the PR attacks which always give BTC a bad name. PR attacks can be the most easiest, cost-less form of attack, Big Companies and well-known personalities usually executes it and they can easily manipulate the price.

Lol, I was thinking the same thing– classification of attacks was really long. But, mehn… all these attacks at a time? In the next ten years? What the…the number one under the category of attacks to slow down Bitcoin adoption– ban of bitcoin by small countries– that one is already happening right now, there are few small countries that banned bitcoin, and some are still about to. But that one won’t much effect on bitcoin.

[Palmerson]

I think that the most dangerous attack in the upcoming years may be due to cyber attacks by using Quantum computers.It is said that quantum computers would be able to read the private keys of a bitcoin wallet with the public key itself.If that happens,then it would have a devastating effect over the bitcoin network.Its said that core developers are working from now itself to fix that issue.

I do not believe that very soon there will be quantum computers. In addition, if such technologies will appear they will appear from all sides and chances are balanced. It seems to me that a much greater effect can be actions of banks and governments aimed at the destruction of bitcoin.

[centralbanksequalsbombs]

This is excellent - thank you for sharing.

[centralbanksequalsbombs]

I think that the most dangerous attack in the upcoming years may be due to cyber attacks by using Quantum computers.It is said that quantum computers would be able to read the private keys of a bitcoin wallet with the public key itself.If that happens,then it would have a devastating effect over the bitcoin network.Its said that core developers are working from now itself to fix that issue.

I do not believe that very soon there will be quantum computers. In addition, if such technologies will appear they will appear from all sides and chances are balanced. It seems to me that a much greater effect can be actions of banks and governments aimed at the destruction of bitcoin.

Agree, wont be anytime in the next two decades. But after twenty years....maybe?

[Coinage.org]

I don't know about that 10 years or even 5 really, some of the projects emerging that I have been working with put that timeline at under 2 years. Are there any considerations for optical miners that anyone is aware of currently?

[Vladv26]

The first to options from legal attacks are the most possible things to happen. Governments can anytime take action and do something to bann bitcoin.by simply creating a law and forbidding the use of bitcoin in a country. It seems very hard to do but we do have to take in consideration the possibility.

The option with hackers stealing a massive number of private keys would also be possible because the industry of bitcoin works with millions of dollars.

[SHOP_]

The recent BPASE conference at Stanford started with a talk on how to destroy bitcoin. Very interesting stuff and overlaps with the table above. Link to reddit post with the recording of the talk: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7uzm6o/game_theory_and_network_attacks_how_to_destroy/

Twitter account of the speaker: https://twitter.com/MaxFangX

Lecture Outline
Selfish Mining
Stubborn Mining Model
Selfish Mining Defense
Game-Theory Based Censorship
51% Attacks and Collusions

[qwertyup23]

I think that the most dangerous attack in the upcoming years may be due to cyber attacks by using Quantum computers.It is said that quantum computers would be able to read the private keys of a bitcoin wallet with the public key itself.If that happens,then it would have a devastating effect over the bitcoin network.Its said that core developers are working from now itself to fix that issue.

I do not believe that very soon there will be quantum computers. In addition, if such technologies will appear they will appear from all sides and chances are balanced. It seems to me that a much greater effect can be actions of banks and governments aimed at the destruction of bitcoin.

Speaking of banks and the government, I saw a thread earlier discussing about France's implementation of strict rules and regulations against cryptocurrencies. The prime minister told the central bank to issue some prohibitions, which relates to bitcoin being a gateway towards money laundering, tax avoidance and illegal transactions. The table summarized and showed the implications that may happen in the near future and currently, the government of some countries are slowly attacking it.

The first to options from legal attacks are the most possible things to happen. Governments can anytime take action and do something to bann bitcoin.by simply creating a law and forbidding the use of bitcoin in a country. It seems very hard to do but we do have to take in consideration the possibility.

The option with hackers stealing a massive number of private keys would also be possible because the industry of bitcoin works with millions of dollars.

Personally, I believe that implementing laws and imposing tax on cryptocurrencies are the simplest form of control over it. But be reminded that while some countries are beginning to be tough on regulations, there are also some countries that are lenient towards cryptocurrencies and does not consider it as a 'threat' (like Singapore, Japan, Philippines, etc.).

[September11Myth]

You have published a quite interesting table of possible dangers. However, the demise of Bitcoin will probably come by a totally different sort of attack. For example, Bitcoin could be destroyed just by the emerging of a much better cryptocurrency which would take its echological niche. To make an example, if Facebook, Google and Amazon would do their own cryptocurrency tomorrow, in a few years they could well wipe out cryptos as we know it, as mass adoption is all for them.