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A comment on Zcoin implementation bug enabled attacker to create over 500K Zcoins. Parent comment

Re:Zcoin implementation bug enabled attacker to create over ... by yjgyhj on Tuesday March 07, 2017 @06:09AM (#13809566)
Yes it is. Assignment is another word for writing state. If your programming environment doesn't include a way to set state, you will never do it. Why is doing the dangerous task of writing state so easy you just have to hit one key to do it in C++?

Let's collectively put our seat belts on, colleagues!

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Re:Zcoin implementation bug enabled attacker to create over ... by mbrock on Tuesday March 07, 2017 @08:06AM (#13809996)
Even in Haskell, writing state is as easy as += or <- and this is used in nearly every actual program.

A cryptocurrency implementation like this doesn't need a language that makes state impossible. It needs static analysis, model checking, and proofs. This would be true even if it were written in your favorite functional language.

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Re:Zcoin implementation bug enabled attacker to create over ... by caf on Tuesday March 07, 2017 @06:15AM (#13809582)
The bug here was a lack of writing state!
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Re:Zcoin implementation bug enabled attacker to create over ... by yjgyhj on Tuesday March 07, 2017 @07:40AM (#13809885)
Sorry for being unclear. In my timezone it's pretty late.

If there was not state, the coder wouldn't had tried to set it. I don't think a language needs to have the `=` operator easy and close at hand. Had that not been the case, this bug (and oh so many others) would never had existed.

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