Bitcoin is getting torpedoed due to sloppy internal coding and outsiders exploiting this in hopes of ripping off the system. Yesterday bitcoiners were saying problems were just at one exchange, a technical glitch, and easily solved. Â They sounded like the White House trying to defend the Obamacare website rollout. Now all the big bitcoin exchanges have halted withdrawals. When banks do that it generally sets off a panic and means something has gone very wrong indeed.
Mt. Gox, Bitstamp, and other Bitcoin exchanges have temporarily suspended withdrawal transactions after coming under a form of a denial-of-service attack that abuses weaknesses in the way they keep track of fund balances
Banksters, gangsters, and other lowlifes are no doubt deliberately trying to hack into bitcoin weaknesses to rip off what they can. Many bitcoin transactions are now “unconfirmed”. meaning they are in limbo. A core bitcoin developer says “transaction malleability” has been a known problem since 2011. Translation: bitcoin transaction can be changed and / or forged. This makes their boasts of security seem laughable.
Transaction malleability has been known about since 2011. In simplest of terms, it is a small window where transaction ID’s can be “renamed” before being confirmed in the blockchain. This is something that cannot be corrected overnight. Therefore, any company dealing with Bitcoin transactions and have coded their own wallet software should responsibly prepare for this possibility and include in their software a way to validate transaction ID’s. Otherwise, it can result in Bitcoin loss and headache for everyone involved.
If the core code has gaping security holes then it is the core code that needs to be fixed. Don’t blame others or pretend the fault lies with them. Fix your damn code.
@readers: This article is baloney; transaction malleability referred to a small window in time after a transaction was broadcast during which others could the time within which which that transaction was confirmed. There were no security holes. Bitcoin is mathematically secure. 🙂
Bitcoins have been stolen on numerous occasions. Whether bitcoin is “mathematically secure: is irrelevant and aptly demonstrates the real problem; geeks who think it’s all about the math and who ignore basic security – like windows in time that can be exploited.