[Conspiracy theory] Have blocks of bitcoin a second purpose?

[gonella]

Is there any chance of decoding the blocks bitcoin have a second purpose?

I mean, suppose that besides being generated bitcoin, we could be decoding information to others (government or private company).

They (gov or company) would have an enormous amount of data that would be decoded only by giant network of computers (in this case the network of mining bitcoin). So they found a way to decode this monstrous amount of data through these blocks bitcoin using the user around the world.

Even by the history of the origin of "Satoshi Nakamoto" never was explained right, and also no one knows where he is. I think, one guy who invented something like that should be more visible right?

Conspiracy theory in action  

Ohh my god..

[1714950911]

1714950911

[rjk]

Nope, the proof of work is all throwaway data that is useless. Basically, you take the transaction headers, add a random piece of data, and hash the whole works twice with SHA256. If the result is under a certain value, it is said to meet the current difficulty, and is accepted as valid (as well as reproducible). If it does not meet the criteria, the random "nonce" value is changed, and the same thing happens - over and over and over until a correct value is found.

Read also here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths
Also read about how the proof of work works at this link: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_work

[Vladimir]

As rjk said. However, it worth noting that Bitcoin hashing work can be "reused" by parasitic (or symbiotic) merged mining. Namecoin is one example of this. But hopefully eventually there will be more of those, all the notarial services, deeds, contract time stamping, potentially even some voting schemes maybe. Imagine that you can develop some software and piggy back almost "for free" to Bitcoin hashing backbone measured in ExoHashes by then.

[CoinLab]

Basically, you take the transaction headers, add a random piece of data, and hash the whole works twice with SHA256.

This is the crucial part, and why you shouldn't believe your theory.  Because you have to add random data, even if someone could force the hash for a given block to be their desired double-SHA256 input, adding random data to the hash from the previous block before hashing effectively scrambles whatever desired input was given.  Forcing the hash to be meaningful data-to-be-hashed would be more computationally intensive that just hashing it yourself. 

It would be fun if you were right though.

[SiliconAlchemist]

This is exactly what my dad thinks bitcoin mining is.

"Well, someone has to be using your processing power for something immoral, like to hack bank info.  That's where the money must come from."

I've tried to explain too many times. 

[rjk]

This is exactly what my dad thinks bitcoin mining is.

"Well, someone has to be using your processing power for something immoral, like to hack bank info.  That's where the money must come from."

I've tried to explain too many times.  

As a currency, it is given value by the people that trade it. More often than not, those that trade it do so because of its properties that are otherwise impossible to replicate in a centralized setting. Some are in it only for the money, but it is those that use it as a store of value that really enable the moneymakers to do what they do.

Mining should really be less in the forefront of the scene than it is currently. As evoorhees has said in the past, how many people mine for gold, silver, etc? And how many of those that use such metals as a currency know the complex techniques used to do so, just so they can get some more? The ones that make all the money aren't usually the miners, they are the ones that trade the stuff in the commodities markets, or use it to manufacture products.

[||bit]

This is exactly what my dad thinks bitcoin mining is.

"Well, someone has to be using your processing power for something immoral, like to hack bank info.  That's where the money must come from."

I've tried to explain too many times.  

As a currency, it is given value by the people that trade it. More often than not, those that trade it do so because of its properties that are otherwise impossible to replicate in a centralized setting. Some are in it only for the money, but it is those that use it as a store of value that really enable the moneymakers to do what they do.

Mining should really be less in the forefront of the scene than it is currently. As evoorhees has said in the past, how many people mine for gold, silver, etc? And how many of those that use such metals as a currency know the complex techniques used to do so, just so they can get some more? The ones that make all the money aren't usually the miners, they are the ones that trade the stuff in the commodities markets, or use it to manufacture products.

Do you now if there is a limit to the database size that is downloaded to each wallet client? My understanding has been that every bitcoin transaction is stored in these database that eveyrone has...i.e. distributed evenly. Is this accurate? Ifso, how far back does it go in stroing each transaction? The database will become too enormous if there is no limit.

[Cablez]

I believe there is no limit as a full fat client has every transaction back to the genesis block. This is why the blockchain is around 2GB and rising and also why there is talk of compressing it or pruning it.

[||bit]

I believe there is no limit as a full fat client has every transaction back to the genesis block. This is why the blockchain is around 2GB and rising and also why there is talk of compressing it or pruning it.

hmmm... makes bitcoin seem cumbersome or prone to becoming more cumbersome.

[rjk]

Yes, everyone that runs a stock client (satoshi code) has a full and complete record of all bitcoin transactions. And yes, this is likely to grow in size, although there are limits on how big each block can be. Read up on "Scalability" in the bitcoin.it wiki - it has many good points.

You can of course also run a thin client such as Electrum. Takes up minimal space, but does require a central server to connect to.

[check_status]

The only conspiracy that can result from bitcoin mining would be a pool mod that really works for the NSA, GRU or some other 3 letter organization, which siphons off hashing power for some other nefarious purpose, sort of like cracking whirlpool passwords using oclhashcat.

[rjk]

The only conspiracy that can result from bitcoin mining would be a pool mod that really works for the NSA, GRU or some other 3 letter organization, which siphons off hashing power for some other nefarious purpose, sort of like cracking whirlpool passwords using oclhashcat.

That would require software support from all the miners...

[hashman]

1) The block chain is a rainbow table of SHA2 hashes (though I can't see why this material would be useful)
2) Block chain currencies are botnet honeypots

Other than that, unless you are willing to go for some organizations having secretly broken ECDSA and/or SHA256, you are going to have to go with what check_status said, looking for pools or compromised pools for your "second purpose". 

Stay safe -