The bitcoin stress tests planned by CoinWallet could breach UK law, a legal professional has suggested.

The claim was first posted on Reddit yesterday, with user 'btcdrak' asserting: "The Computer Misuse Act 1990 in the United Kingdom makes it an offence to deliberately cause disruption to computer systems with intent."

Eitan Jankelewitz, associate at UK law firm Sheridans, said he would tend to agree with this assessment.

The aim of these stress tests is to verify whether the bitcoin network is capable of handling a large stream of very small transactions. CoinWallet’s first test in June aimed to fill blocks with 105 BTC worth of miniscule transactions, but reached just 15% of its 200MB goal before its servers crashed.

"I’m inclined to say there is a good argument that the CoinWallet stress tests would be a breach of section 3 of the CMA 1990," Jankelewitz said.


Source: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-spam-tests-could-violate-uk-law/