[ANN][SIM] Simcoin - A Simple Coin

[gs02xzz]

Stellar revealed a flaw in Ripple/Stellar consensus. It seems there are still lots of room for better consensus.

https://www.stellar.org/blog/safety_liveness_and_fault_tolerance_consensus_choice/

Prof. David Mazières, head of Stanford’s Secure Computing Group, reviewed the Ripple/Stellar consensus system and reached the conclusion that the existing algorithm was unlikely to be safe under all circumstances. Based these findings, we decided to create a new consensus system with provable correctness. This effort, led by Prof. Mazières, is underway. His white paper and the accompanying code are expected to be released in a few months.

[1714607486]

1714607486

[1714607486]

1714607486

[1714607486]

1714607486

[1714607486]

1714607486

[1714607486]

1714607486

[NxtChg]

Stellar revealed a flaw in Ripple/Stellar consensus. It seems there are still lots of room for better consensus.

https://www.stellar.org/blog/safety_liveness_and_fault_tolerance_consensus_choice/

Wow, another one bites the dust, and a big one!

Well, can't say this is a big shock, because when I've read their full paper I was surprised at how bad their system actually was - it made so many assumptions about the state of the network in order to function correctly.

We are still investigating the triggers for this consensus failure, but believe it is caused by the innate weaknesses of the Ripple/Stellar consensus system outlined above compounded by the number of accounts in the network. Presently, we have approximately 140,000 active accounts a week and over 3 million total accounts which is in excess of the approximately 120,000 total accounts (active and inactive) this stack has previously supported.

Our monitoring of the network has made it clear that the underlying Ripple/Stellar consensus system is not performing at this level of scale, which is still small relative to the global financial system. In order for such protocols to perform at real-world levels with the expected degree of safety, this number of accounts should not be a problem.

Just wow.

This also shows how difficult the distributed consensus is. Although I hope to do better, every such failure makes me suspect that I am deluded (Sell, sell, sell! )

Also, I can't fall back to Ripple's consensus now if Simcoin's consensus fails, at least not until they invent something better.

Well, let's hope it will work.

[NxtChg]

Thought about it a bit more, their claim that

"The majority of the network was on ledger chain A. At some point, the network decided to switch to ledger chain B."

means that the system split, and for a few hours each part operated independently, happily reporting that everything is Ok and building a separate transaction history.

This is weird. I can't imagine under what conditions that would be possible in Simcoin - it is designed in such a way that it wouldn't build 2 separate histories. If some catastrophic failure splits the network it will just stop working almost instantly, because I believe that not being able to send money is not as bad as losing it.

In that regard, Simcoin sacrifices some resilience for speed and reliability. Ripple's solution is almost centralized, it's strange they didn't take the same route...

[gs02xzz]

In that regard, Simcoin sacrifices some resilience for speed and reliability. Ripple's solution is almost centralized, it's strange they didn't take the same route...

Maybe Stellar's new consensus which Prof. Mazières is working on is taking a similar approach as Simcoin.   That would be big.

[NxtChg]

There was some sort of security incident at blockchain.info and now the main exchange wallet stopped working.

Your money is safe, but no withdrawals are possible at the moment.

Also please don't deposit anything, just in case.

I've contacted blockchain.info to resolve this.

[NxtChg]

Weird things are happening at blockchain.info - a few hours ago everything looked normal, now the balance is 0 and there are some crazy transactions on 8th, which are not recorded in my database.

Can anyone check this address 12E1nuxThKRSNLSUHAYKcXis3KPpS9834X in the native bitcoin client?

Particularly the balance and all transactions on 8th.

This is weird: https://www.biteasy.com/blockchain/addresses/12E1nuxThKRSNLSUHAYKcXis3KPpS9834X

[NxtChg]

It looks like blockchain info was on a fork or used their own database instead of the real blockchain, so it showed that everything is Ok, but in reality every incoming transaction after 8th got stolen?

https://www.blocktrail.com/BTC/address/12E1nuxThKRSNLSUHAYKcXis3KPpS9834X/transactions

[NxtChg]

UPDATE:

The last transaction on 7th was at 22:50:53, so their window should be at least an hour longer.

Seems that about 3 BTC went to the Good Samaritan, who then returned it to blockchain.info: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411

Anyone who deposited after 7th got their deposits stolen immediately.

All this time blockchain.info showed me completely different view of things and a valid balance, so I was unaware that somebody was stealing all new deposits.

Users #96, #387, #500, #1176 had their deposits stolen for the total amount of 4.72614335 BTC.

[Blas]

UPDATE:

The last transaction on 7th was at 22:50:53, so their window should be at least an hour longer.

Seems that about 3 BTC went to the Good Samaritan, who then returned it to blockchain.info: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=581411

Anyone who deposited after 7th got their deposits stolen immediately.

All this time blockchain.info showed me completely different view of things and a valid balance, so I was unaware that somebody was stealing all new deposits.

Users #96, #387, #500, #1176 had their deposits stolen for the total amount of 4.72614335 BTC.

That's not really true, I am 500 and I deposit yesterday 2 times around 0.322 and it was deposited correctly, I bought with 0.322 more than 250,000 sims and then I decided I needed the other 0,3...to buy something else so I withraw it and its standing in pending withdwal..https://simxchg.com/ is down so I can not see the right figures...my deposit were not stolen!!! One I traded it and the other deposit I withdraw and is pending!

[NxtChg]

That's not really true, I am 500 and I deposit yesterday 2 times around 0.322 and it was deposited correctly, I bought with 0.322 more than 250,000 sims and then I decided I needed the other 0,3...to buy something else so I withraw it and its standing in pending withdwal..https://simxchg.com/ is down so I can not see the right figures...my deposit were not stolen!!! One I traded it and the other deposit I withdraw and is pending!

The amount displayed on the site is not from blockchain, it's just a record in my database. The real money is gone.

[Blas]

That's not really true, I am 500 and I deposit yesterday 2 times around 0.322 and it was deposited correctly, I bought with 0.322 more than 250,000 sims and then I decided I needed the other 0,3...to buy something else so I withraw it and its standing in pending withdwal..https://simxchg.com/ is down so I can not see the right figures...my deposit were not stolen!!! One I traded it and the other deposit I withdraw and is pending!

The amount displayed on the site is not from blockchain, it's just a record in my database. The real money is gone.

So how can it be??? I deposit 2 amounts of 0.3....   and I placed a trade for both of them...so one I bought  over 250,000 sim and then I cancelled the other buy order and decided to withdraw it....So How I can I bought 250,000 sims if the deposit was stolen and the other deposit I cancel the buy order but I could have bought sims if I wanted....this does no make sense you can trade with just data so what happened with my over 250,000 sims I bought its showing I bought it, you are not going to take that away from me as its mine and also the other 0,3..... btc

[NxtChg]

...you can trade with just data so what happened with my over 250,000 sims I bought its showing I bought it...

Let's first see if blockchain.info will compensate this, as they should, because, as I understand, this is their bug.

[v39453]

...you can trade with just data so what happened with my over 250,000 sims I bought its showing I bought it...

Let's first see if blockchain.info will compensate this, as they should, because, as I understand, this is their bug.

Have you seen this?

https://twitter.com/blockchain/status/542106998150799360

"We admit we are at fault. We will be working w/affected users to reimburse those whose funds were misplaced."

[Blas]

...you can trade with just data so what happened with my over 250,000 sims I bought its showing I bought it...

Let's first see if blockchain.info will compensate this, as they should, because, as I understand, this is their bug.

you are not responding....first with one of the deposit I made yesterday I bought over 250,000 simss! so whoever got my 0,3btc from that sell he just got 0,3...btc but not real btc? so what a mess...or is it me who got 255,000sims? is that's the case the other person got 0,3..real btc? come on you know it does not make sense. Also with the other 0,3...btc I was able to trade but I cancel it...I need to get access to the exchange to take screenshot

[NxtChg]

Everybody, calm down.

Let's wait for a reply from blockchain.info. If they compensate, this all won't matter and all the trades will stand, nothing will change.

[NxtChg]

From blockchain.info:

"This is an automated message to inform you that we are still investigating each individual claim by our users. This requires a great deal of research on our part, and we appreciate your patience. Thank you."

So it will take a while...

[Blas]

From blockchain.info:

"This is an automated message to inform you that we are still investigating each individual claim by our users. This requires a great deal of research on our part, and we appreciate your patience. Thank you."

So it will take a while...

NxtChg do I have to do anything? are you claiming this on behalf of us or do we have to send an email to someone?

[NxtChg]

NxtChg do I have to do anything? are you claiming this on behalf of us or do we have to send an email to someone?

No, you don't have to do anything. And it seems blockchain.info has no problems reimbursing the whole amount. Just waiting for them to finalize the request.

[NxtChg]

UPDATE:

Blockchain.info returned the full amount stolen. SimXchg will open in a few days.

[wizzardTim]

UPDATE:

Blockchain.info returned the full amount stolen. SimXchg will open in a few days.

Yay