Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by 0x0 on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @08:43PM
(#12214637)
Someone further down the thread also mentioned a very good point in that the attackers could potentially start a bidding war against such a fork. They would have nothing to lose compared to a situation where the heist is reversed.
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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by patio11 on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @08:59PM
(#12214723)
They have a fairly elegant mechanism to do so, too: just chain transactions from T to the addresses the miners send their coinbase transactions to. If miners go forward with the re-write history plan, the bribe gets undelivered, Back to the Future style.
It might be one of the first cases of bribery where the briber doesn't have to talk to the bribee to discuss the object of the conspiracy, the price, or how the bribe would be delivered.
Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by defen on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @03:11AM
(#12216194)
Schelling-point bribery
Kinda reminds me of Eliezer's concept of acausal blackmail
Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by 0x0 on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @09:01PM
(#12214737)
Amazing.
Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by patio11 on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @09:06PM
(#12214766)
Oh it gets better! The attackers can do things like entangle their stolen Bitcoin in systemically important institutions. Say, send 0.01 BTC to Coinbase. Coinbase is probably not operationally capable of separation that Bad Bitcoin from their Good Bitcoin before it's been comingled with customer funds. At that point, reversing T would also invalidate consequential transactions by Coinbase, which is probably something they can't allow to happen, so they would pay miners to not reverse.
Comedy. Gold!
Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by 0x0 on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @09:10PM
(#12214794)
It sounds like miners could find a replacement revenue stream even if block rewards go to zero and transaction fees are low: Hold the blockchain hostage for reversal and sell out to the highest bidder!
(Of course, this would likely drive the value of 1 BTC to exactly $0)
(Edit: This is all a demonstration of how the security of the blockchain absolutely depends on mining hashpower being widely decentralized and distributed)
Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by topynate on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @07:37AM
(#12217216)
Which is one of the more practical reasons a rollback is very, very unlikely to happen. (It would have been fairly unlikely even in the case of ethereum/theDAO, had not the nature of that exploit effectively locked the funds for a month.)
Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by ucho on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @08:37AM
(#12217462)
What happens to people/exchanges that had already accepted stolen cryptocoin after such "justice forks"?
Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by greyman on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @09:06AM
(#12217629)
In that new valid blockchain, the transaction where they were given that coin will simply not be there.
Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s...
by 0x0 on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @09:59AM
(#12217927)
I'm not 100% sure but I think that anyone can re-submit the "undone" transaction to the new blockchain, as long as the source address hasn't already spent its balance on the new chain? Isn't this what's called a "replay"?