[VXC] V.Cash (Was: [VNL] Vanillacoin), a quiet word of warning. - page 4.

monsterer

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Quote from: YarkoL on September 24, 2015, 12:08:02 PM

I see now multiple threads about Vanillacoin, but
where is an intelligent discussion about whether the
coin actually delivers the distinctive new features it
claims to have?

john connor won't discuss them, sadly. The whitepaper is seriously lacking in detail and doesn't address any attack vectors.

onemorexmr

sr. member

Activity: 252

Merit: 251

Quote from: YarkoL on September 24, 2015, 12:08:02 PM

I see now multiple threads about Vanillacoin, but
where is an intelligent discussion about whether the
coin actually delivers the distinctive new features it
claims to have?

"property rights", give me a break

here you go:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=977245.new;topicseen#new

this thread is about john-connor copying code without honoring its license and lying about it

YarkoL

legendary

Activity: 996

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I see now multiple threads about Vanillacoin, but
where is an intelligent discussion about whether the
coin actually delivers the distinctive new features it
claims to have?

"property rights", give me a break

smooth

legendary

Activity: 2968

Merit: 1198

Quote from: smooth on September 24, 2015, 05:30:51 AM

False. The OpenSSL attribution is retained in the Bitcoin distribution.

Quote from: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/README.md

This product includes software developed by the OpenSSL Project for use in the OpenSSL Toolkit.

Where is the attribution in vanilla coin along with your retraction of the false claim that vanillacoin was written entirely from scratch?

Whether the code was originally from Bitcoin or OpenSSL, you have now admitted that your marketing claim about vanillacoin was false.

In any case the code in VNL is structurally much more similar to the version in Bitcoin and was obviously copied from that one, not the OpenSSL variant (which is also a reasonable inference since there are other sections of Bitcoin code which are obviously copied/renamed and don't come from OpenSSL)

traumschiff

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180 BPM

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.12507853:

Quote from: john-connor on September 24, 2015, 02:25:13 AM

Quote from: iCEBREAKER on September 24, 2015, 01:52:07 AM

Stealing code is not acceptable. Denying the theft is even worse.

Smooth aka iCEBREAKER: This code is from the OpenSSL project from ecdhtest.c:

Code:

static EC_KEY *mk_eckey(int nid, const unsigned char *p, size_t plen)
{
    int ok = 0;
    EC_KEY *k = NULL;
    BIGNUM *priv = NULL;
    EC_POINT *pub = NULL;
    const EC_GROUP *grp;
    k = EC_KEY_new_by_curve_name(nid);
    if (!k)
        goto err;
    priv = BN_bin2bn(p, plen, NULL);
    if (!priv)
        goto err;
    if (!EC_KEY_set_private_key(k, priv))
        goto err;
    grp = EC_KEY_get0_group(k);
    pub = EC_POINT_new(grp);
    if (!pub)
        goto err;
    if (!EC_POINT_mul(grp, pub, priv, NULL, NULL, NULL))
        goto err;
    if (!EC_KEY_set_public_key(k, pub))
        goto err;
    ok = 1;
 err:
    if (priv)
        BN_clear_free(priv);
    if (pub)
        EC_POINT_free(pub);
    if (ok)
        return k;
    else if (k)
        EC_KEY_free(k);
    return NULL;
}

I agree, Bitcoin should not steal. Cool

Thank you for your support.

traumschiff

legendary

Activity: 1498

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@iCEBREAKER

That "code thief" single handedly coded more and with a higher quality than your beloved XMR developers, who couldn't put down anything on the table since the moment they forked bytecoin.

Must hurt to baghold something that will never get real world use or adoption with those "developers".

iCEBREAKER

legendary

Activity: 2156

Merit: 1072

Crypto is the separation of Power and State.

Quote from: vanillagalaxy on September 21, 2015, 07:53:10 AM

1.there is no scam on Vanillacoin
2.there is no such thing that you so called "copyright violation" exist for what gmaxwell said not even supported with enought evidences

Gmax and smooth are right, the evidence VNL stole code is overwhelming:

Quote from: gjhiggins on September 22, 2015, 02:56:45 AM

Quote from: rnicoll on August 12, 2015, 03:38:29 PM

Define "uses". There's certainly structural similarities:

https://github.com/john-connor/vanillacoin/blob/master/src/key.cpp vs
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/0.9/src/key.cpp#L16

Thanks for that.

Adding “#L34” to the vnl URI nails it for me:

Code:

{code}

That's a lot more than just a structural similarity.

It’s hard for me to see this as anything other than incontrovertible evidence of the author having a naively self-centred perspective on intellectual property rights, broadly translatable as “what’s yours is mine and what’s mine’s my own”.

More tellingly, it's also hard to reconcile this evident difficulty in critical thinking with any kind of work in the area of cryptography, notorious for its relentlessly stern demands of cognitive sophistication in its proponents.

Stand back a few yards and the picture becomes somewhat clearer. I've not even bothered looking at vnl, being confident that it’s just another variant of the “misunderstood but brilliant maverick outsider, wronged by a complacent community” media narrative and all the posturing is entirely consistent, even the expedient arrogation of others’ work. Given the evidence in the codebase, I'm reassured that my confidence is not misplaced, although I do have to admit that his choice of pseudonym is a bit of a give-away in and of itself.

Confirmed: VNL is a scam perpetuated by an unrepentant code thief.

generalizethis

legendary

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Facts are more efficient than fud

Quote from: vanillagalaxy on September 21, 2015, 07:53:10 AM

Quote from: iCEBREAKER on September 21, 2015, 04:22:38 AM

Quote from: souljah1h on September 21, 2015, 04:09:37 AM

Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: gmaxwell on January 12, 2015, 10:09:41 AM

FWIW, I politely reported the copyright violation (the code being a copy of Bitcoin Core run through an auto-formatter with all the attribution removed) as an issue on the github for the project and john-connor accused me of stalking him and then hid the issue tracker on that github from public view. :-/

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised as it's consistent with the rest of the concerns that resulted in creating this thread-- that there is some ongoing effort to keep that work out of the sunlight.

#R3KT

VNL still here, not rekt

I would imagine a legendary member doesnt behave like this saying #R3KT. What is your agenda? Oh think i found out

Do you have any comment on VanillaScam's "copyright violation (the code being a copy of Bitcoin Core run through an auto-formatter with all the attribution removed)?"

nothing have to comment here for

1.there is no scam on Vanillacoin
2.there is no such thing that you so called "copyright violation" exist for what gmaxwell said not even supported with enought evidences

TLDR: Nuh-uh

vanillagalaxy

full member

Activity: 179

Merit: 100

Quote from: iCEBREAKER on September 21, 2015, 04:22:38 AM

Quote from: souljah1h on September 21, 2015, 04:09:37 AM

Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: gmaxwell on January 12, 2015, 10:09:41 AM

FWIW, I politely reported the copyright violation (the code being a copy of Bitcoin Core run through an auto-formatter with all the attribution removed) as an issue on the github for the project and john-connor accused me of stalking him and then hid the issue tracker on that github from public view. :-/

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised as it's consistent with the rest of the concerns that resulted in creating this thread-- that there is some ongoing effort to keep that work out of the sunlight.

#R3KT

VNL still here, not rekt

I would imagine a legendary member doesnt behave like this saying #R3KT. What is your agenda? Oh think i found out

Do you have any comment on VanillaScam's "copyright violation (the code being a copy of Bitcoin Core run through an auto-formatter with all the attribution removed)?"

nothing have to comment here for

1.there is no scam on Vanillacoin
2.there is no such thing that you so called "copyright violation" exist for what gmaxwell said not even supported with enought evidences

iCEBREAKER

legendary

Activity: 2156

Merit: 1072

Crypto is the separation of Power and State.

Quote from: souljah1h on September 21, 2015, 04:09:37 AM

Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: gmaxwell on January 12, 2015, 10:09:41 AM

FWIW, I politely reported the copyright violation (the code being a copy of Bitcoin Core run through an auto-formatter with all the attribution removed) as an issue on the github for the project and john-connor accused me of stalking him and then hid the issue tracker on that github from public view. :-/

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised as it's consistent with the rest of the concerns that resulted in creating this thread-- that there is some ongoing effort to keep that work out of the sunlight.

#R3KT

VNL still here, not rekt

I would imagine a legendary member doesnt behave like this saying #R3KT. What is your agenda? Oh think i found out

Do you have any comment on VanillaScam's "copyright violation (the code being a copy of Bitcoin Core run through an auto-formatter with all the attribution removed)?"

souljah1h

legendary

Activity: 1092

Merit: 1000

Hyperspace snail

Quote from: ?? on ??

Quote from: gmaxwell on January 12, 2015, 10:09:41 AM

FWIW, I politely reported the copyright violation (the code being a copy of Bitcoin Core run through an auto-formatter with all the attribution removed) as an issue on the github for the project and john-connor accused me of stalking him and then hid the issue tracker on that github from public view. :-/

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised as it's consistent with the rest of the concerns that resulted in creating this thread-- that there is some ongoing effort to keep that work out of the sunlight.

#R3KT

VNL still here, not rekt

I would imagine a legendary member doesnt behave like this saying #R3KT. What is your agenda? Oh think i found out

iCEBREAKER

legendary

Activity: 2156

Merit: 1072

Crypto is the separation of Power and State.

iCEBREAKER

legendary

Activity: 2156

Merit: 1072

Crypto is the separation of Power and State.

Quote from: gmaxwell on January 11, 2015, 02:04:43 AM

Vanillacoin was previously discussed on this forum, https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-vnl-vanillacoin-beta-pre-release-890388 but he locked the threads in order to shuffle the users (victims?) off to someplace out of the light of day-- never a good sign, (nor is his BCT newbie account, for that matter). The "vanillacoin" software has no source code available, it is binaries only (very much not a good sign, and usually severe malware concern; and an ultimate form of centralization), there are source links but they go to a basically empty github repository. There is a whitepaper, which like the comments on github show some general software development background they show no real sign of sophisticated understanding around decenteralized systems for adversarial networks or cryptocurrencies.

I don't know anything more about it, but I figure sunlight tends to be a good disinfectant; and with the threads locked it probably wasn't fair of me to say nothing while I was privately thinking "hm, that all smells pretty fishy". Of course, the guy was a bit rude to me and also wasted my time-- so feel free to factor that bias in however you like. I'm just reporting my impression as a regular community member. You now know what I know.

[I'm the last person to play altcoin-cops... I mostly avoid this stuff except for the rare cases that are technically interesting: The drama can sink unbounded time and usually, when it comes to the more misguided altcoin cryptography, the only sane policy seems to be "If you see something,say nothing and drink to forget": there is too much crazyness and risk of being attacked for being critical of someones latest scheme. But if it shows up in my face, I can't quite stomach saying nothing at all.]
Cheers,

Ouch. "john-conner" better put some ice on that burn!

YAdaminer

hero member

Activity: 829

Merit: 1000

Yea guys, nothing is easy with BTC.

Flaws correction, updating, mining, transfering,... everything is so slow to the point of uselessness.

hmm

VNL on the other hand is totaly oposit, fast and easy so any merchant can accept it

When use of gold as payment has become problem people turned to cash.

When use of BTC has become problem john-connor made VNL.

carpe diem

rnicoll

full member

Activity: 199

Merit: 110

Quote from: Este Nuno on August 14, 2015, 05:22:34 PM

Quote from: YAdaminer on August 14, 2015, 05:16:43 PM

So let assume they knew about problem, so why didn’t they fix it on the first place?
You believe what you think is right, I believe what I think is right.
As this thread is about VNL and 'quiet words of warning' created by BTC core dev and not quiet words about BTC flaws created by john-connor I believe that this thread, as you say, actually is some kind of vindication.

They did fix it with BIP 66. Notice how BIP 66 is dated Jan 10th. Bitcoin is not easy to update though and they set it to need 95% consensus to take effect which can take a while.

There's no vindication, gmaxwell created this thread after seeing some fundamental misunderstandings from John Connor, as well as noticing that he had ripped off Bitcoin Core code without the proper attributions as per the MIT licence. More than enough reason to make a thread. If people still choose to ignore these red flags then there's nothing else he can do. But I for one appreciate the fact that he made the post, as people often get away with a lot of BS in the altcoin scene.

In fact, the first specification for trying to fix it was BIP 62, back in March 2014: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0062.mediawiki

However that specification tried bringing in incompatible changes (I think it was something to do with P2SH addresses, but don't quote me on that), which lead to BIP 66 replacing it.

Este Nuno

legendary

Activity: 826

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amarha

Quote from: YAdaminer on August 14, 2015, 05:16:43 PM

Quote from: Este Nuno on August 14, 2015, 04:20:10 PM

Quote from: YAdaminer on August 14, 2015, 03:22:42 PM

Also if claim from mr.Maxwell that john-connor didn’t warn them about anything are actually true that means that they (bitcoin core devs) already knew about the problem but they done nothing to fix them which is even worse. So going out with quiet warnings is nothing but perfidious way to undermine john-connor work.

Yes, I believe they knew about a specific problem that if publicized could lead to a damaging attack on Bitcoin. They only let us know the full scope of the issue recently after the BIP 66 soft fork was completed as doing anything other than that would be foolish. Gmaxwell or anyone else who knows more specifics can correct me if I'm wrong.

Notice how sipa says the discovered the issue in September 2014: http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015-July/009697.html

The fact that some people are trying to pass this off as vindication for John Connor, or as some situation where he was the one who alerted everyone about a problem seems very deceptive.

So let assume they knew about problem, so why didn’t they fix it on the first place?
You believe what you think is right, I believe what I think is right.
As this thread is about VNL and 'quiet words of warning' created by BTC core dev and not quiet words about BTC flaws created by john-connor I believe that this thread, as you say, actually is some kind of vindication.

They did fix it with BIP 66. Notice how BIP 66 is dated Jan 10th. Bitcoin is not easy to update though and they set it to need 95% consensus to take effect which can take a while.

There's no vindication, gmaxwell created this thread after seeing some fundamental misunderstandings from John Connor, as well as noticing that he had ripped off Bitcoin Core code without the proper attributions as per the MIT licence. More than enough reason to make a thread. If people still choose to ignore these red flags then there's nothing else he can do. But I for one appreciate the fact that he made the post, as people often get away with a lot of BS in the altcoin scene.

YAdaminer

hero member

Activity: 829

Merit: 1000

Quote from: Este Nuno on August 14, 2015, 04:20:10 PM

Quote from: YAdaminer on August 14, 2015, 03:22:42 PM

Also if claim from mr.Maxwell that john-connor didn’t warn them about anything are actually true that means that they (bitcoin core devs) already knew about the problem but they done nothing to fix them which is even worse. So going out with quiet warnings is nothing but perfidious way to undermine john-connor work.

Yes, I believe they knew about a specific problem that if publicized could lead to a damaging attack on Bitcoin. They only let us know the full scope of the issue recently after the BIP 66 soft fork was completed as doing anything other than that would be foolish. Gmaxwell or anyone else who knows more specifics can correct me if I'm wrong.

Notice how sipa says the discovered the issue in September 2014: http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015-July/009697.html

The fact that some people are trying to pass this off as vindication for John Connor, or as some situation where he was the one who alerted everyone about a problem seems very deceptive.

So let assume they knew about problem, so why didn’t they fix it on the first place?
You believe what you think is right, I believe what I think is right.
As this thread is about VNL and 'quiet words of warning' created by BTC core dev and not quiet words about BTC flaws created by john-connor I believe that this thread, as you say, actually is some kind of vindication.

Este Nuno

legendary

Activity: 826

Merit: 1002

amarha

Quote from: YAdaminer on August 14, 2015, 03:22:42 PM

Also if claim from mr.Maxwell that john-connor didn’t warn them about anything are actually true that means that they (bitcoin core devs) already knew about the problem but they done nothing to fix them which is even worse. So going out with quiet warnings is nothing but perfidious way to undermine john-connor work.

Yes, I believe they knew about a specific problem that if publicized could lead to a damaging attack on Bitcoin. They only let us know the full scope of the issue recently after the BIP 66 soft fork was completed as doing anything other than that would be foolish. Gmaxwell or anyone else who knows more specifics can correct me if I'm wrong.

Notice how sipa says the discovered the issue in September 2014: http://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-dev/2015-July/009697.html

The fact that some people are trying to pass this off as vindication for John Connor, or as some situation where he was the one who alerted everyone about a problem seems very deceptive.

YAdaminer

hero member

Activity: 829

Merit: 1000

Quote from: Este Nuno on August 14, 2015, 11:28:36 AM

Quote from: YAdaminer on August 13, 2015, 03:45:54 PM

Quote from: gmaxwell on August 13, 2015, 02:51:39 PM

Quote from: x0rcist on August 12, 2015, 08:54:29 AM

Everyone should read this article (especially the under the hood part):

http://cointelegraph.com/news/114794/miners-lost-over-50000-from-the-bitcoin-hardfork-last-weekend

John Connor warned the BTC devs about this issue:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/5634#issuecomment-69481908

Who are the idiots?

I'm afraid you failed to actually understand the discussion. First, there has been no Bitcoin hard fork; the article you're linking to is simply flat out wrong.

Secondly, John Connor didn't warn about anything there-- in fact, he copied the code he was complaining about into his own codebase, after reformatting and with incorrect attribution in violation of the very minimal software license, and then lied about the functionality being in his forware all along. (See also: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.10122209).

I find it remarkable that people will continue to use software written by someone who has been caught outright lying about the content of the binaries they distribute. It reduces my faith in the potential for the success of cryptocurrency at all. What greater warning sign could you ask for?

Hmm, hmm, You were discussing over a problem yet john-connor didnt warn you, khmm
Yea, right and I heard that earth is actually flat.
Makes you wonder how stuff member can go out with opinions and discuss on any topic here which strongly reduces my faith in service quality and competence of this forum.
edit
Oh, mr. Maxwell you even started this thread, isn't this some kind of conflict of interest?
Does this forum have some or any kind of code of conduct?

This has nothing at all to do with the forum. I'm not sure why you're bringing that up. He's a mod in some of the forums here, but not this one.

And you realize he's one of the five Bitcoin Core developers who have commit access on Bitcoin Core itself, right?

The fact that he is one of 5 Bitcoin core developers makes this thread even worse in all possible aspects.
Known thing is that john-connor will not debate here not with mr. Maxwell nor with anyone else cause this is mr. Maxwell playground and he as part of the staff and mod have all advantages.
As mr. Maxwell is allowed to go with his opinions than it is certainly ok for anyone to bring questions about his work and anything he is doing which includes his role in this forum.
Also if claim from mr.Maxwell that john-connor didn’t warn them about anything are actually true that means that they (bitcoin core devs) already knew about the problem but they done nothing to fix them which is even worse. So going out with quiet warnings is nothing but perfidious way to undermine john-connor work.
And for the end I’ll say this, VNL didn’t have not one double spend problem not on livenet nor on testnet and we all know we can’t say that for BTC.

Este Nuno

legendary

Activity: 826

Merit: 1002

amarha

Quote from: YAdaminer on August 13, 2015, 03:45:54 PM

Quote from: gmaxwell on August 13, 2015, 02:51:39 PM

Quote from: x0rcist on August 12, 2015, 08:54:29 AM

Everyone should read this article (especially the under the hood part):

http://cointelegraph.com/news/114794/miners-lost-over-50000-from-the-bitcoin-hardfork-last-weekend

John Connor warned the BTC devs about this issue:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/5634#issuecomment-69481908

Who are the idiots?

I'm afraid you failed to actually understand the discussion. First, there has been no Bitcoin hard fork; the article you're linking to is simply flat out wrong.

Secondly, John Connor didn't warn about anything there-- in fact, he copied the code he was complaining about into his own codebase, after reformatting and with incorrect attribution in violation of the very minimal software license, and then lied about the functionality being in his forware all along. (See also: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.10122209).

I find it remarkable that people will continue to use software written by someone who has been caught outright lying about the content of the binaries they distribute. It reduces my faith in the potential for the success of cryptocurrency at all. What greater warning sign could you ask for?

Hmm, hmm, You were discussing over a problem yet john-connor didnt warn you, khmm
Yea, right and I heard that earth is actually flat.
Makes you wonder how stuff member can go out with opinions and discuss on any topic here which strongly reduces my faith in service quality and competence of this forum.
edit
Oh, mr. Maxwell you even started this thread, isn't this some kind of conflict of interest?
Does this forum have some or any kind of code of conduct?

This has nothing at all to do with the forum. I'm not sure why you're bringing that up. He's a mod in some of the forums here, but not this one.

And you realize he's one of the five Bitcoin Core developers who have commit access on Bitcoin Core itself, right?

Topic: [VXC] V.Cash (Was: [VNL] Vanillacoin), a quiet word of warning. - page 4. (Read 14244 times)