TERRACOIN ATTACK OVER 1.2TH ATTACK CONFIRMD

[markm]

The security model is pretty simple brute force: have more block-confirming computation power than all the supercomputers/competitors in the world all put together, by several times over.

That is not conducive to having umpteen chains that are not merging the same computer-power. By far the majority of the relevant computer-power on the planet needs to all achieve consensus as to the correct blockchain. Deliberately creating alternative blockchains undermines the very basis of the blockchain-security concept.

-MarkM-

[gr0bi42]

This seems to be a bug or a exploit regarding the "RETARGET: artificially lowered diff; hard time mining current block..." change from April.

Block generation rate is very high and so this special retarget should NOT happen.
The block generation rate in the last hour was 4.6 blocks a minute!!!

[fluffypony]

I'm not sure whether it started with miner software using sha256d to describe the double sha-256 hash or if it came from outside of bitcoin circles. A quick google is inconclusive. I know the term has become pretty common and since it's the switch for algo selection in several miners it's probably here to stay.

Sha-2 and sha-256 are the related like squares and rectangles.  All sha-256 is sha-2 but not all sha-2 is sha-256.

I haven't seen shaw-256 but it reads like a phonetic typo. I'm sure I'll notice it now.

I've seen it on a thread here, and I think I even made a "SHAWty got low" comment. People speak out of ignorance without bothering to do even basic research.

[mcgreed]

If this is a design problem (vulnerability) with the source, and if the developers have forsaken it, and the code is still publicly available, it behooves anyone with vested interest in the coin and sufficient programming skills (mine are insufficient) to address this. Even if that means pulling the newest source from an unmaintained repository (is it maintained?), making the fix, and uploading the source to some other new, maintained repository.

[andrewboy44]

Someone got an ASIC working on TRC?

asics have always worked with TRC. I use my asics for it but this shit right now is insane....

[roy7]

Since TRC is based off the BTC source, is the 6 hour thing something BTC fixed previously that TRC never copied? Or is it a TRC-specific bug?

[blinky]

I happened to speak with gmaxwell and he pointed out it's a timewarp attack:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=114751.0

It's been fixed in Bitcoin.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Since TRC is based off the BTC source, is the 6 hour thing something BTC fixed previously that TRC never copied? Or is it a TRC-specific bug?

TRC not only didn't copy the fix, it made it worse.  Asymmetrical difficulty changes (where difficulty can go down more than it can go up) allows the attacker to amplify the effects of the attack.  No serious crypto-currency can have an asymmetrical difficulty system.  It is trivial to exploit.

[scrypt]

So, what some honest miner(s) can do to help the coin to survive the attack? Mining trc using official client or may be there is some more effective way?

[TheSwede75]

Someone got an ASIC working on TRC?

ASIC works for TRC 'per default'. It's SHA256.

[roy7]

So, what some honest miner(s) can do to help the coin to survive the attack? Mining trc using official client or may be there is some more effective way?

It appears the time lapse attack is more of a bug in the code of terracoin, and would need fixed to prevent this from happening again. There isn't enough legitimate hash power on TRC to just force the attackers out if they are really using 1.2TH or more. Coinotron is by far the biggest pool and only runs about 1/3 that speed typically.

[Bogart]

I have a script that queries terracoind every 5 seconds for the current difficulty.  If it's below my arbitrary threshold, it calls the cgminer API on my miners (about 200GHps), and has them hop onto mining TRC (solo, using eloipool locally).

It's worked nicely for me for a few months now, to mine when difficulty is low, and then hop off again when it becomes high (contributing to the oscillation effect).

But now that this attack is underway, no more mining for me.  All of my mined blocks become orphaned now because the attacker refuses to confirm them.

[bigdaub]

Looks like the terracoin repository is now active. Attempted fix put in place at block 175000

https://github.com/terracoin/terracoin/commits/master/src

[roy7]

I see they rejected the checkpoint someone did a pull request on earlier. The "current chain" the exchanges are relying on are, I assume, the one full of the blocks from the attacker...

[flound1129]

I see they rejected the checkpoint someone did a pull request on earlier. The "current chain" the exchanges are relying on are, I assume, the one full of the blocks from the attacker...

So the devs are active but either not aware of the problem or actively working against a fix?  Not making me feel any better...

[360SECONDS]

Woo! I managed to sell my TRC at the usual rate before the crash!

Have a look at those stats!

http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency/

quick look\/FRC looks very undervalued for another SHA-256 type coin!=)

http://www.coinwarz.com/cryptocurrency/coins/freicoin

[STT]

Some good comments on this thread, should archive it for future reference since new coins are so common

[crazyearner]

Some good comments on this thread, should archive it for future reference since new coins are so common

Hardly a new coin. This has been here for a while.

And for others talking about devs. I wish they would get their acts together and provide more support to their miners seems their never active anywhere.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Some good comments on this thread, should archive it for future reference since new coins are so common

Hardly  a new coins been here for a while.

And for others talking about devs. I wish they would get their acts together and provide more support to their miners seems their never active anywhere.

Aren't most scamcoins past the insta-mine, pump and dump phase.  You didn't really think most of these have a future do you?

[markm]

Yeah even the gimmicky "we use a different proof of work" coins seem to be losing value, which shouldn't be a surprise since all the gimmicky proofs of work are less efficient than SHA256 so its like hey not only do we have a silly gimmick we are also less efficient, isn't that great, buy us!

-MarkM-