Jacob Appelbaum: "Bitcoin Prediction: Major bugs in the near future ..." - page 4.

Stevie1024

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

Quote from: xf2_org on June 11, 2011, 01:49:14 PM

Quote from: Stevie1024 on June 11, 2011, 01:13:05 PM

Quote from: xf2_org on June 11, 2011, 01:03:54 PM

Quote from: Stevie1024 on June 11, 2011, 12:52:47 PM

Quote from: benjamindees on June 10, 2011, 06:54:14 PM

I wouldn't call bullshit so quickly. I have some suspicions that there are a couple of major problems lurking.

Anyone interested in some of these, please have a look at: http://www.newbitcoin.org/documents/newbitcoin.pdf

This paper is filled with inaccurate observations and assumptions.

Please name one, or, if you have the time, some. I'm very happy to learn and if I'm wrong I will happily admit so.

The transaction fee has already been lowered.

I'm not sure what "inaccurate observation or assumption" in my paper you are referring to. I stated that the enforced limits (like indeed transaction fee) are not optimal ones. And that I think that they should definitly not be under control of a small group of developers.

The fact that after publication of my paper the fee has already been lowered seems to support my statement.

EDIT

Since yesterday I have effectivly been labeled a troll (having 'only' 22 posts) and prohited any chance to respond to reply to xf2_org's last mail. This is appearently how the Bitcoin community wants to deal with valid critique.

I'm not going to risk this happening again. If you think my critique is valid, I'm inviting you to join me on:

http://bitcoinforum.org/

I promise you that critique, valid or not, will never be censored.

xf2_org

member

Activity: 98

Merit: 13

Quote from: Stevie1024 on June 11, 2011, 01:13:05 PM

Quote from: xf2_org on June 11, 2011, 01:03:54 PM

Quote from: Stevie1024 on June 11, 2011, 12:52:47 PM

Quote from: benjamindees on June 10, 2011, 06:54:14 PM

I wouldn't call bullshit so quickly. I have some suspicions that there are a couple of major problems lurking.

Anyone interested in some of these, please have a look at: http://www.newbitcoin.org/documents/newbitcoin.pdf

This paper is filled with inaccurate observations and assumptions.

Please name one, or, if you have the time, some. I'm very happy to learn and if I'm wrong I will happily admit so.

The transaction fee has already been lowered.

AaronM

member

Activity: 76

Merit: 10

This is effectively a $5,000,000 reward for breaking elliptic-curve cryptography: http://blockexplorer.com/address/1PZjfkLZBT7Q3UFmyEWH8QtuzTMi3MUiBj The public key for this address is in the blockchain.

Bitcoin's security also rests on SHA256's security, but so far there have been no useful attacks. I think the cryptography and blockchain rules are very robust. What is maybe less robust is the Bitcoin software and network protocol. If we have any problems, it will be because of software/protocol problems (buffer overflows, DDos, poison nodes, etc.), not problems with cryptography or rules of the Bitcoin blockchain.

When I have some time, I'm going to work on auditing the Bitcoin source. If you'd like to support me, donate here: 1uWY36pcXhLC4V4pZ2eZFScRaUPXgPEwC

Stevie1024

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

Quote from: xf2_org on June 11, 2011, 01:03:54 PM

Quote from: Stevie1024 on June 11, 2011, 12:52:47 PM

Quote from: benjamindees on June 10, 2011, 06:54:14 PM

I wouldn't call bullshit so quickly. I have some suspicions that there are a couple of major problems lurking.

Anyone interested in some of these, please have a look at: http://www.newbitcoin.org/documents/newbitcoin.pdf

This paper is filled with inaccurate observations and assumptions.

Please name one, or, if you have the time, some. I'm very happy to learn and if I'm wrong I will happily admit so.

bcearl

full member

Activity: 168

Merit: 103

Quote from: BotherMeNot on June 10, 2011, 02:30:42 PM

I agree. For one thing it relies on encryption and a public log. Encryption can be broken and with bitcoins as is, you can't force new encryption standards on old bitcoins. As for the public log, if someone branches from it or introduces their own log then we loose credibility of the currency.

Bitcoins is a good proof of concept, but I think the concept will be taken over and improved upon by companies who don't respect the same level of anonymity that Bitcoins and Tor promote.

One could just hash the whole old block chain with a new algorithm, the question is how we establish it to be accepted by the peers and transforming it into a new block chain.

xf2_org

member

Activity: 98

Merit: 13

Quote from: Stevie1024 on June 11, 2011, 12:52:47 PM

Quote from: benjamindees on June 10, 2011, 06:54:14 PM

I wouldn't call bullshit so quickly. I have some suspicions that there are a couple of major problems lurking.

Anyone interested in some of these, please have a look at: http://www.newbitcoin.org/documents/newbitcoin.pdf

This paper is filled with inaccurate observations and assumptions.

Tukotih

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

Quote from: xf2_org on June 11, 2011, 12:28:18 PM

Confirmed. No specific security vulnerabilities are forthcoming.

Sweet, that's really good to hear.

Now, any speculations if/when the market will get healthy again?
I'm hoping for somewhere before the next difficulty. I haven't ever invested in bitcoin so I hope that everything turns out just fine, which I actually believe as well.

Stevie1024

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

Quote from: benjamindees on June 10, 2011, 06:54:14 PM

I wouldn't call bullshit so quickly. I have some suspicions that there are a couple of major problems lurking.

Anyone interested in some of these, please have a look at: http://www.newbitcoin.org/documents/newbitcoin.pdf

xf2_org

member

Activity: 98

Merit: 13

Confirmed. No specific security vulnerabilities are forthcoming.

hoo2jalu

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

Quote from: benjamindees on June 10, 2011, 06:54:14 PM

I wouldn't call bullshit so quickly. I have some suspicions that there are a couple of major problems lurking.

Jacob Applebaum is probably sniffing Tor exit traffic again and some people are using bitcoin miners insecurely or something much less interesting than he is making it out to be.

Do not feed the drama queens!

benjamindees

legendary

Activity: 1330

Merit: 1000

I wouldn't call bullshit so quickly. I have some suspicions that there are a couple of major problems lurking.

qarl

newbie

Activity: 8

Merit: 0

Quote from: gigitrix on June 10, 2011, 04:15:17 PM

He thinks this will happen.

naw - he's indicated he knows of a specific "major" bug. he's not speculating.

but since the core devs don't seem to know what he's talking about, i'm afraid i have to agree with the others who are calling bullshit.

mcdett

full member

Activity: 157

Merit: 101

Quote from: gigitrix on June 10, 2011, 04:15:17 PM

You're all reading far too much into it. He thinks this will happen.
tl;dr: dox or gtfo.

If you read the second tweet he states he has knowledge of a specif bug.

Chris Acheson

sr. member

Activity: 266

Merit: 251

Dude probably just wants to buy some bitcoins for cheap.

gigitrix

hero member

Activity: 630

Merit: 500

You're all reading far too much into it. He thinks this will happen. For all you know, this is either some random prediction based on "complex software has bugs" (not an unture statement in general), or Appelbaum could have looked into bitcoin without a fundamental understanding of all the protection layers the blockchain has. He could even be trying to distort the price for personal gain (although I do not believe this myself).

tl;dr: dox or gtfo.

Jack of Diamonds

sr. member

Activity: 252

Merit: 251

Quote from: qarl on June 10, 2011, 03:22:05 PM

Quote from: xf2_org on June 10, 2011, 03:11:16 PM

I do know that bitcoin has a history of newbies appearing, claiming to have found some major hole in bitcoin, and then nothing coming of it.

agreed. but given Appelbaum's core involvement in wikileaks and Tor - i don't think it's wise to treat him as a typical n00b.

He hasn't contributed any real code to the TOR project at all. Check his commits.

qarl

newbie

Activity: 8

Merit: 0

Quote from: xf2_org on June 10, 2011, 03:11:16 PM

I do know that bitcoin has a history of newbies appearing, claiming to have found some major hole in bitcoin, and then nothing coming of it.

agreed. but given Appelbaum's core involvement in wikileaks and Tor - i don't think it's wise to treat him as a typical n00b.

hoo2jalu

member

Activity: 70

Merit: 10

Quote from: paulie_w on June 10, 2011, 02:41:01 PM

why doesn't he just say what it is? why do some people choose to create panic?

Because Jacob Applebaum is an idiot, and has only heard things second hand (rumor). And that is assume he even knows what he is talking about. (Doubtful)

Look at all of the "security work" he's been involved in. He is Press Frontman, not actual hacker or talented coder!

Jacob Applebaum is idiot!

xf2_org

member

Activity: 98

Merit: 13

Quote from: syn on June 10, 2011, 03:09:09 PM

Can anyone confirm that Gavin (or other lead developers) have gotten specifics from Appelbaum?

I am still waiting for a response...

BotherMeNot

newbie

Activity: 14

Merit: 0

To each there own opinion, but I didn't read any news reports and don't think I'm an expert in BitCoins. Thanks for the whitepaper link! I did read up the wiki article when it was mentioned that people could be traced, but they didn't go into it in enough detail. I'll see if it fits the concept of a group over taking the public logs by creating their own mining pools larger than what's currently out there. By branching, I mean extending upon so that a new currency (or version of) is created on top of the old. A poor choice of words on my part.

As for encryption, I haven't ran into any articles detailing how the current methods can be improved upon. If you can provide me with links, that would be swell.

Topic: Jacob Appelbaum: "Bitcoin Prediction: Major bugs in the near future ..." - page 4. (Read 14850 times)