Bitcoin Core Developers say Altcoins are unsecure

[5ick3uffalo]

at 21:52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2q9pItnO0U


So my question is: Why are Altcoins unsecure?

[BitCoinNutJob]

The more popular a coin, the higher the price, the more people mine = more computing power distributed = more secure coin.

[bitsmichel]

at 21:52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2q9pItnO0U


So my question is: Why are Altcoins unsecure?

Not all, but some alt coins are trojans or pump & dump.

[DooMAD]

For proof of work coins, the more people who are mining and the higher the hash rate, the more secure that network becomes.  Bitcoin's hash rate dwarfs everything else out there at the moment.  This means if some people have a sizable amount of hashing power and turned it towards a smaller coin, they could control more than 51% of that coin's network.  Other coins that don't use proof of work may be considered more vulnerable because their networks aren't quite as well distributed, or possibly even entirely centralised, which means you have to trust who ever is running it.
 

[catena5260]

There are scam coins and alt wallets with malware inside. You can never 100% know what you are downloading.
Weaker network, compared to Bitcoin, it is almost nothing.
Algorithm and features not fully tested, so they are more prone to have unknown vulnerabilities.
Other algorithms like PoS have other known vulnerabilities, like some kind of 51% attack by having more than 50% of the coins

[ensurance982]

I guess it totally depends on the altcoin. I don't really believe that altcoins like Litecoin or Dogecoin are insecure for day-to-day purposes, since their hashing power still is somewhat big and rather well distributed. But when it comes to all those scam coins that are merely pumps and dumps, like you already suggested, the hashing power isn't high enough and not distributed well enough so that some single entity may take over the complete coin!

[bornil267645]

Maybe some of them, but not all of them

[Frijj]

Well they would say that wouldnt they? Though I suppose the networks can be less secure and more prone to 51% attacks etc.

[fairglu]

So my question is: Why are Altcoins unsecure?

No need for malice or incompetence, simple technical reasons are quite sufficient:

• not enough hashrate to defend the Proof of Work (obvious), and/or not enough mining pools
• not enough staking wallets or funds staking to secure Proof of Stake (less obvious, but just as real)
• too many funds in one or two exchanges (security is then only as good as that of the exchange...)
• difficulty retargets happening too fast that can allow forks to thrive
• few people monitoring the blockchains/network (while bitcoin's is monitored 24/7 by many individuals)

The last point is probably key: if something (anything) goes wrong with the bitcoin blockchain, you can be sure it will be noticed quickly, and broadcast widely, exchanges can suspend trading, code can be fixed, etc. yes, it will be a PITA, but it also makes bitcoin very very resilient because it does not just depend on algorithms.

The top altcoins are looked after, but for all too many altcoins, you'll be lucky if there is even a working blockchain explorer... many noteworthy altcoins even went for days or weeks without working explorers, this basically means that nobody monitored them, and they were running on hash and prayer.

[kelsey]

I'd say to the guy in the video, people in glass houses 

[BitCoinDream]

at 21:52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2q9pItnO0U


So my question is: Why are Altcoins unsecure?

I'd like to know the opposite. Why do u think they are secure ? How can u even expect that a pump n dupm scheme, that is being distributed against Bitcoin (i.e. to raise Bitcoin) will be secure ?

e.g. Satoshi believed in his creation so much that he dint sell is stash as of yet. Now, look at ether. They are pre-selling it

[wezphoto]

The more popular a coin, the higher the price, the more people mine = more computing power distributed = more secure coin.

I think they are referring to the fact that sometimes there is a malware in altcoins wallets.

[digitalindustry]

at 21:52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2q9pItnO0U


So my question is: Why are Altcoins unsecure?

because they are not Bitcoin duh.

also they don't have Petahashes of Mining power centralized into a few Pools and soon a few central planners, thus they are messy and can not be organized.

so they are just really blowing in the wind because they have no central planning like Bitcoin has.

once Bitcoin has its Central Bank and Global ID, you can forget all so called "Alts"

[unpure]

For PoW coin, beside litecoin, the rest of the altcoin can be easily attacked using 51% attack.

Alt coin exchanges already have measured against this type of attack by needing a lot of confirmation.

[LiteCoinGuy]

use Bitcoin and Litecoin and you are fine.

[soltantgris]

Don't forget that it was only one bitcoin user. Then 2. Then now. So it's kind of weird that bitcoin dev spread FUD about altcoin. 

Bitcoin's dev should focus on bitcoin - and maybe see how they can ''copy'' and improve some alt features. Bitcoin's force is the network hashpower and popularity. But it's a lot of things to improve still. It's slow, it's an energy monster, it's more and more centralized, it's unpractical to use. 

In fact, we can imagine that for daily transactions, bitcoin won't be the one to rule them all !   So it would be better to focus on working togetter with some solid alt instead of bashing them.

PS : I know - my english is not that good.

[minerpumpkin]

There are so many altcoins and the hash rate that's deployed nowadays across all those coins get diluted quite a bit. Altcoins become insecure as soon as they don't have enough decentralized hash rate mining them.

[MicroGuy]

I'd say to the guy in the video, people in glass houses  

Yes. The fact is Satoshi often times held 75% of the Bitcoin hashrate, then later vanished into thin air with over 1 million bitcoins, right at a time when he claimed the network was vulnerable to attack (see his last post). That's documented history. The fact is, many altcoins are just as secure as bitcoin.

Take Goldcoin (GLD) for example which features a unique 51% defense system, something lacking entirely in Bitcoin.

[kelsey]

Well even LTC doesn't have enough hashrate to prevent an attack and to be secure enough.
Bitcoin is leading with security no matter what people say. It's unlikely that any coin will take over Bitcoins place right now, maybe later..

but that's the misconception though larger hash (after a point) doesn't mean more secure. ltc actually more secure on many fronts then btc.

[hikedoon]

So my question is: Why are Altcoins unsecure?

No need for malice or incompetence, simple technical reasons are quite sufficient:

• not enough hashrate to defend the Proof of Work (obvious), and/or not enough mining pools
• not enough staking wallets or funds staking to secure Proof of Stake (less obvious, but just as real)
• too many funds in one or two exchanges (security is then only as good as that of the exchange...)
• difficulty retargets happening too fast that can allow forks to thrive
• few people monitoring the blockchains/network (while bitcoin's is monitored 24/7 by many individuals)

The last point is probably key: if something (anything) goes wrong with the bitcoin blockchain, you can be sure it will be noticed quickly, and broadcast widely, exchanges can suspend trading, code can be fixed, etc. yes, it will be a PITA, but it also makes bitcoin very very resilient because it does not just depend on algorithms.

The top altcoins are looked after, but for all too many altcoins, you'll be lucky if there is even a working blockchain explorer... many noteworthy altcoins even went for days or weeks without working explorers, this basically means that nobody monitored them, and they were running on hash and prayer.

 Definitely agree with the last point too.
 I've got some Primecoins (XPM) and the dev. seems to have abandoned it and the forum is like a ghost town.
 I should have bought BTC with the money instead.
 Lol,Hindsight is a wonderful thing indeed.