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Topic: Ultimate Bitcoin Stress Test - Monday June 22nd - 13:00 GMT - page 5. (Read 21441 times)

sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
two things:
1. Perhaps it was because of the backlash they received here, because they were concerned for innocent bitcoiners as well, that they did not do a full 24 hours as they had originally promised.
2. increasing fees isn't a solution; it'll cause less people to use bitcoin which is detrimental.

Storing data is not "free".

The marginal cost of a transaction is a very real metric; especially in a system that expects that data to be stored by all participants for an extended period of time.

Ignoring this fact, does not make it go away.

The Bitcoin "ledger" and block chain is a globally replicated database.
Expecting to store your transaction data in it for little or no fees is irresponsible and selfish.

And ignoring the fact that as a currency, fees should be sufficiently low does not make it go away. I thought bitcoin wants to succeed as a currency, not just a database storage system?
legendary
Activity: 1512
Merit: 1012
Yes, it's over ...  Cool

newbie
Activity: 4
Merit: 0
Wow, reading through this thread, so many whiny users. This is exactly what should happen, yes on the live network. I can't imagine all the crying that would occur if a truly malicious entity with a budget of 5000 BTC instead of 20 BTC went to town on the network. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the average bitcoin user does not even think about the transaction fee, so it is all the more easy to disrupt people's business because you only have to spam the network with a few extra satoshis in fees, and then people freak out over their transactions taking forever and they don't know how much of a fee they need to use to get their txns processed in a timely manner. Better for the entire bitcoin userbase, and third party app developers, to become aware of this sooner than later, and to see how the network actually behaves when network volume exceeds the blocksize limit.

It seems to me that large-scale spam attacks designed to cripple all/most network activity may be unsustainable due to the eventual increase in fees per transaction needed to keep it up. However if an attacker merely wishes to be a nuisance and spam-out only the lowest fee transactions and fill up the blocks, that could happen on a sustainable basis with a relatively low budget.
legendary
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1074
Blockchain.info not refreshing anymore.
Other people with the same problem?

Yep, I got this last night " Maximum concurrent requests for this endpoint reached. Please try again shortly. "

I have to say, my test transaction confirmed pretty quickly, and it was even quicker than my normal day to day confirmations. What is the possibility that miners who stopped mining, switched on their rigs, just to cash in on the extra transaction fees, generated through this experiment?

I still say... If you want to have untainted results, run this test, when nobody knows about it.  Sad
legendary
Activity: 1092
Merit: 1001
Seven days until a repeat attempt...


CoinWallet.eu Stress Test Complete

 Cool

See everybody in one week, i guess. Lol.
full member
Activity: 223
Merit: 132
Seven days until a repeat attempt...


CoinWallet.eu Stress Test Complete

 Cool
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1002
CLAM Developer
two things:
1. Perhaps it was because of the backlash they received here, because they were concerned for innocent bitcoiners as well, that they did not do a full 24 hours as they had originally promised.
2. increasing fees isn't a solution; it'll cause less people to use bitcoin which is detrimental.

Storing data is not "free".

The marginal cost of a transaction is a very real metric; especially in a system that expects that data to be stored by all participants for an extended period of time.

Ignoring this fact, does not make it go away.

The Bitcoin "ledger" and block chain is a globally replicated database.
Expecting to store your transaction data in it for little or no fees is irresponsible and selfish.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
two things:

1. Perhaps it was because of the backlash they received here, because they were concerned for innocent bitcoiners as well, that they did not do a full 24 hours as they had originally promised.


2. increasing fees isn't a solution; it'll cause less people to use bitcoin which is detrimental.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1002
CLAM Developer
It will be interesting to see if this stress test brings about a solution to the block size problem. Hopefully we can find a solution to ensure that the blockchain continues to function without any issues or unnecessary delays.
This test isn't really going to change anything, or bring any solutions... This is only raising awareness of a problem we already know we have, it isn't proposing anything new. It's an interesting test, but with a predictable outcome for which the solution is already in discussion for quite some time, and there is already code ready to be deployed that helps prevent a situation like this.
Yes, the test is meaningless - it's an annoyance aiming at price manipulation.
The solution to stop spam attacks like this is certainly not a max_blocksize increase, because even at 20x times the blocksize the resources needed to perform such an attack are still extremely small for any serious attacker.
The practical solution for now is: Prioritize your transaction by sending it with an adequate fee.
The general solution is: Increase fees for spam transactions, i.e. fees should rise non-linearly (maybe exponentially) for small-value transactions with big data size.
ya.ya.yo!
Uh.. NO. If they wanted to manipulate the price, they wouldn't have announced this; then people might start panicking not knowing who is attacking the system. That will manipulate the price.

If there was indeed a malicious agenda, that agenda would more likely be to persuade users to support the proposed block increase changes.

1. Spam chain to cause problems with poorly implemented wallet solutions/clients.
2. Users of above clients have trouble transacting.
3. Convince those users that only the block size increase can solve their problems.



The real short-term solution to these tests?

Implement better fee estimation in the client software.
Choose wallet software that allows for more intelligent fee estimation.
legendary
Activity: 1092
Merit: 1001
Was there also some stress test on 16th this month? I had a transaction that got first confirmation only after about 6 hours, and was sent with standard fee.
The size of the block was 912.46875 KB, and number of unconfirmed transaction at the time ranged from 2500-3000 (+)

cheers

Yes there was something on the 16th.
But no one knew if it was related to the btc price rising (235ish to 250ish) and causing more tx or it was actual testing.
legendary
Activity: 1722
Merit: 1000
Satoshi is rolling in his grave. #bitcoin
Was there also some stress test on 16th this month? I had a transaction that got first confirmation only after about 6 hours, and was sent with standard fee.
The size of the block was 912.46875 KB, and number of unconfirmed transaction at the time ranged from 2500-3000 (+)

cheers
copper member
Activity: 2996
Merit: 2374
It will be interesting to see if this stress test brings about a solution to the block size problem. Hopefully we can find a solution to ensure that the blockchain continues to function without any issues or unnecessary delays.

This test isn't really going to change anything, or bring any solutions... This is only raising awareness of a problem we already know we have, it isn't proposing anything new. It's an interesting test, but with a predictable outcome for which the solution is already in discussion for quite some time, and there is already code ready to be deployed that helps prevent a situation like this.

Yes, the test is meaningless - it's an annoyance aiming at price manipulation.

The solution to stop spam attacks like this is certainly not a max_blocksize increase, because even at 20x times the blocksize the resources needed to perform such an attack are still extremely small for any serious attacker.

The practical solution for now is: Prioritize your transaction by sending it with an adequate fee.

The general solution is: Increase fees for spam transactions, i.e. fees should rise non-linearly (maybe exponentially) for small-value transactions with big data size.

ya.ya.yo!

Uh.. NO. If they wanted to manipulate the price, they wouldn't have announced this; then people might start panicking not knowing who is attacking the system. That will manipulate the price.



The "test", as it was originally intended, was supposed to last longer and cause a backlog for 3 days.
Seems it only lasted 24 hours and the backlog is pretty much clear now.
Until they release their "report" on their "findings", I'm not really sure what actually happened today.
They had claimed that they had budgeted for roughly 32 hours worth of transactions, however would stop pushing new transactions after 24 hours.

They were suppose to continue to push transactions into the network at a consistent rate, however from the looks of it, they pushed transactions onto the network for a few hours when the "test" first started, then stopped for several hours and then resumed pushing transactions again. The test was suppose to create a backlog of transactions worth several hundred MB, however this clearly did not happen.....as of now it appears that the backlog of unconfirmed transactions is pretty much clear.

I think it is pretty clear that they did not use up their entire claimed budget for this test.
legendary
Activity: 1092
Merit: 1001
It will be interesting to see if this stress test brings about a solution to the block size problem. Hopefully we can find a solution to ensure that the blockchain continues to function without any issues or unnecessary delays.

This test isn't really going to change anything, or bring any solutions... This is only raising awareness of a problem we already know we have, it isn't proposing anything new. It's an interesting test, but with a predictable outcome for which the solution is already in discussion for quite some time, and there is already code ready to be deployed that helps prevent a situation like this.

Yes, the test is meaningless - it's an annoyance aiming at price manipulation.

The solution to stop spam attacks like this is certainly not a max_blocksize increase, because even at 20x times the blocksize the resources needed to perform such an attack are still extremely small for any serious attacker.

The practical solution for now is: Prioritize your transaction by sending it with an adequate fee.

The general solution is: Increase fees for spam transactions, i.e. fees should rise non-linearly (maybe exponentially) for small-value transactions with big data size.

ya.ya.yo!

Uh.. NO. If they wanted to manipulate the price, they wouldn't have announced this; then people might start panicking not knowing who is attacking the system. That will manipulate the price.



The "test", as it was originally intended, was supposed to last longer and cause a backlog for 3 days.
Seems it only lasted 24 hours and the backlog is pretty much clear now.
Until they release their "report" on their "findings", I'm not really sure what actually happened today.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
It will be interesting to see if this stress test brings about a solution to the block size problem. Hopefully we can find a solution to ensure that the blockchain continues to function without any issues or unnecessary delays.

This test isn't really going to change anything, or bring any solutions... This is only raising awareness of a problem we already know we have, it isn't proposing anything new. It's an interesting test, but with a predictable outcome for which the solution is already in discussion for quite some time, and there is already code ready to be deployed that helps prevent a situation like this.

Yes, the test is meaningless - it's an annoyance aiming at price manipulation.

The solution to stop spam attacks like this is certainly not a max_blocksize increase, because even at 20x times the blocksize the resources needed to perform such an attack are still extremely small for any serious attacker.

The practical solution for now is: Prioritize your transaction by sending it with an adequate fee.

The general solution is: Increase fees for spam transactions, i.e. fees should rise non-linearly (maybe exponentially) for small-value transactions with big data size.

ya.ya.yo!

Uh.. NO. If they wanted to manipulate the price, they wouldn't have announced this; then people might start panicking not knowing who is attacking the system. That will manipulate the price.

legendary
Activity: 1241
Merit: 1005
..like bright metal on a sullen ground.
It is impossible to know with certainty, however we are anxiously looking forward to Monday.



Pretty good. lol.

Glad you liked it. It was deleted by a mod for being off-topic. How can Dr. Evil be off-topic in an Ultimate Bitcoin Stress Test thread!?
legendary
Activity: 1736
Merit: 1023
The cost of spamming the network and delaying transactions is, in a simplistic representation, a function of the cost per kB and the size of the block.

This is an important distinction.

Although larger blocks would increase the cost to delay other user's transactions, the exact same result could occur from a functioning fee market.

Increasing EITHER capacity OR the cost per kB would increase cost.

The ultimate result of these two strategies is different, however.

With a larger block size, the long-term cost to the network rises.
Each kB of block chain must be stored by all of the full nodes participating in the network forever, given the current system.
Each kB of transaction stored in the chain has a very real long-term "cost".
The increased cost is permanent.

With a higher fee per kB, the short-term cost to the network rises.
Transaction fees must rise for users, in order to be included in a block, during the spam attack.
The increased cost is temporary.



This trade-off should not be underestimated.

That is very true. The blockchain is already quite big as well and the storage required keeps rising. A temporary rise in fees could be interesting but would result in a more permanent rise as the number of bitcoin transactions grows with increased use I would imagine. Wasn't the idea of the "spam attack" that it was trying to simulate possible real world bitcoin activity later on in bitcoin's life?
full member
Activity: 223
Merit: 132
2) There should be some self-adjustment of fees. Clients should be
   able to inquire from the full nodes an estimate for a reasonable
   fee based on the current content of the mempool. This would allow for
   moderate fees under usual circumstances but would increase fees in
   times of flooding the blockchain with scam and would turn scamming
   into an expensive exercise.

^^ This.

If my client had warned me about the situation I would not have sent my BTC this morning.  'If my client had said "you're going to need to pay an exorbitant amount in fees if you hope to have your transaction confirmed anytime today thanks to a "stress test" that is currently being perpetrated on mainnet.' I would have appreciated the warning and cancelled the send.

I was going to play a game for 30 minutes or so before work.  Now, 4.5 hours later, my BTC is tied up in some unconfirmed transaction.  Hey, OP, uh, thanks!



Granted, you may be using a different client, but it is already possible to query the bitcoin core client (and maybe some others) to get a fee estimate (bitcoin-cli estimate fee NUMBLOCKS - where NUMBLOCKS is how many blocks you want the transactions to get one confirmation within).  I haven't really used it much, other than to put it on my node stats page, so I won't vouch for the accuracy, but the numbers look reasonable from what I have seen reported on my node.

Considering the devs cannot anticipate when an event like this will occur to put out an alert, nor do I believe it was a serious enough event to really warrant much attention, I think this is pretty fair.  Even if it was a full fledged, state sponsored attack on the network by way of flooding transactions, the core client and network seem to be working as designed.  Now, whether and how that design can be improved, there are no shortage of opinions and theories.  It's no secret that bitcoin is not ready to scale to a global sized economy yet, if ever.
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1081
I may write code in exchange for bitcoins.
That will lead to a huge decline in bitcoin... as for if it's so hard to spend, why use it at all? :-/

And I finally got a confirmation on my transaction sent with a standard fee, a total of 9 hours and 15 minutes after sending it.  Thanks stress test!

And yes, now that I know these kinds of shenanigans are being perpetrated, I'm going to be adjusting my usage accordingly.  I'm not sure that was the intended result of the stress-testers, but that's what I'm doing.  So I guess the stress-testers have achieved something in making bitcoin that much harder to use.
legendary
Activity: 1736
Merit: 1029
just pay another couple pennies to get your transactions confirmed in the next block.

Ahh, yes. If only those 10k unconfirmed transactions had paid higher fees they would be confirmed by now.

Supply and demand would have decided which ones got including by who was willing to pay the most.

Yes, but if we raised the cap slightly, miners "could" fit more transactions within a block, thus clearing this backlog.
Raising your fee just places you at the top of the list. But the line is still increasing.

And in theory, if that line continued for weeks, you'd pay eventually 1btc to be at the front of that line.

That means that there would be 1 thousand other transactions every 10 minutes that were willing to pay 1 btc to have there transactions included as well.

Yeah.. great for miners, but horrible/impossible for the average user. Thus nurturing Bitcoin/bitcoin.

My point is eventually the fees will continue to increase to a point that most users can not afford.
Many new and average users only own way less than 0.10 btc.

What happened to spreading Bitcoin throughout the world?
What are all those poor people in poor states gonna do now?
http://www.coindesk.com/ben-parker-bitcoin-has-potential-in-fragile-states/
Tough shit for them, I guess, eh?
That will lead to a huge decline in bitcoin... as for if it's so hard to spend, why use it at all? :-/
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1081
I may write code in exchange for bitcoins.
Didn't take part in it, but current test made very long queue. People waited over 3 hours for 1 confirmation.
Limit of block size must be increased ASAP.

Dude, I am still waiting for a confirmation from over 7 hours ago.  I sent a 551byte transaction with a 2KSat fee and I must be at the bottom of the queue or something.  I see on blockchain.info that we seem to have stabilized at about 5000 unconfimred transactions but to be honest I have no idea how this compares to historical averages because it's never been an issue getting confirmations before.

I think average is around 800 to 1300 unconfirmed transactions during normal situations. Maybe even less.


Thanks that helps.  I also took a look at the number of transactions in the last few blocks and saw that they were in the hundreds (not thousands) and that also made me realize there must still be an above average queue going on here.  I see that at the moment of this post we're down to 3970 so at least things are headed in the right direction (although I'm still without a confirmation, wow).

I guess I can thank the OP's experiment for teaching me something about how many transactions are usually in a block.  And for teaching me a lesson to look up the number of waiting transactions before sending any bitcoin to make sure there's not some kind of "stress test" nonsense happening.
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