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[Tripon]

Digital currencies are only as reliable as their software, and some Bitcoin users are learning this the hard way. Thanks to a "problem" with an upgrade that applies a new rule, some Bitcoin mining pools (namely, those that don't usually wait to validate their money) have been generating invalid data blocks. If you're using certain client apps, that could lead to making transactions that aren't really valid -- and mining operations that ran afoul of the change are losing income.

Bitcoin is the future guys. No problem what so ever. Fight the power.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/04/bitcoin-miners-create-invalid-currency/?ncid=rss_truncated

 

[Zaptruder]

To be fair, there's a fairly significant cost in distributing and maintaining the security of non-crypto currencies as well.

 

[tokkun]

Bitcoin is the future guys. No problem what so ever. Fight the power.

I'm no cryptocurrency evangelist, but that seems unfair when our current financial system is not immune to software bugs. Did they lose more than $440 million?
http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/09/technology/knight-expensive-computer-bug/

 

[jstripes]

Wow, so you mean that currency that I couldn't effectively mine if I didn't have $20,000 in sketchy dedicated equipment might have problems?

 

[Tripon]

To be fair, there's a fairly significant cost in distributing and maintaining the security of non-crypto currencies as well.

Of course there's significant cost to distributing and maintaining security of non-crypto currencies, but they are backed by a standing government that can maintain that. Bitcoin was intentionally designed to eventually make it so expensive that nobody can mine the data.

I'm no cryptocurrency evangelist, but that seems unfair when our current financial system is not immune to software bugs. Did they lose more than $440 million?
http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/09/technology/knight-expensive-computer-bug/

That's one company, and not the very institutions that create the currency. With Bitcoin, everyone is a miner and eventually, like the case I listed, people will take shortcuts in order to either save money or time which will screw them and everyone else over.

 

[tokkun]

That's one company, and not the very institutions that create the currency. With Bitcoin, everyone is a miner and eventually, like the case I listed, people will take shortcuts in order to either save money or time which will screw them and everyone else over.

Malice aside, isn't generating invalid bitcoins analogous to forgery in the world of paper money? Not seeing why this is a significant weakness compared to the alternative.

 

[Codeacious]

I was wondering when someone was going to post this; I read a rather interesting discussion regarding this earlier today surrounding the Bitcoin Foundation's own explanation (warning, technical details within).

The core part of the problem (double spending of coins) can be eliminated by simply waiting for a larger number of confirmations on the Bitcoin network, so it's not as big of a problem as one might think. However, stuff like this further exemplifies the biggest problem of Bitcoin- it's not long-term sustainable in its current form, and pretty much any sort of fork or major change is impossible without devaluing the currency entirely due to splitting the blockchain. As such, only changes that will keep the entire blockchain and mining community unified are pushed into release branches, and even then (as evidenced by this incident) things go wrong. It's why so many other currencies have launched trying to solve Bitcoin's problems. If/when Bitcoin comes tumbling down, the cryptocurrency space will get really volatile until something else comes out on top (personally, I'm voting for Ethereum due to its potential applications of service based spending contracts).

 

[Tripon]

Malice aside, isn't generating invalid bitcoins analogous to forgery in the world of paper money? Not seeing why this is a significant weakness compared to the alternative.

There's a limit on how much paper money you can fake, and it is a small amount compared to the legal tender in circulation. Besides, even with forgeries, people still accept the idea of a dollar equaling a dollar.

However, introducing bitcoin forgeries in my opinion has the chance of destabilizing the whole thing. If you can't trust a bitcoin to be an actual bitcoin, the whole idea falls apart.

 

[Zeroth]

I'm no cryptocurrency evangelist, but that seems unfair when our current financial system is not immune to software bugs. Did they lose more than $440 million?
http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/09/technology/knight-expensive-computer-bug/

Reversing the errant trades cost almost half a billion dollars. Which raises the question: Where does this fall on the all-time list of history's most expensive computer meltdowns?

That's... not the question I had in mind.