Thursday, October 4, 2018

Will a bug in Bitcoin’s software lead to double-spend exploits of Altcoins which use BTC’s public code?

Colleagues, a recent bug in Bitcoin’s public code has led to the illicit printing of some 235 million Pigeoncoins. Although Bitcoin has released a software patch which altcoins, exchanges and mining pools can install to mitigate this bug, the specter of crypto double-spend cyber-attacks looms large. Double spending is a problem unique to digital currencies because digital information can be reproduced with relative ease. Bitcoin transactions take some time to verify because the process involves intensive computational power and complex algorithms, which can be measured in seconds or milliseconds. Two fundamental questions emerge. First, just how many exchanges, pools and altcoins use BTC’s public code? Given the size, complexity and global diversity of the crypto ecosystem this question is almost impossible to answer. Second, how many of these crypto entities will expeditiously implement the software patch before cyber criminals can perform double-spend transactions? Sadly, this question is equally difficult to answer. When in doubt we once again offer our baseline guidance: Stay with established (aka Tier 1) currencies, exchanges and pools that typically have more comprehensive security measures in place. Share a comment while visiting us today! Lawrence – Cyber Security Defender (https://cybersecuritydefender.blogspot.com/)  

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