Quote from: Zoomer on June 29, 2011, 06:15:25 PM

Quote from: MoonShadow on June 29, 2011, 12:17:16 AM

Quote from: dazedtrader on June 28, 2011, 11:41:55 PM

Quote from: MoonShadow on June 28, 2011, 11:25:44 PM

Why should I read it? I know that it's wrong.

Controversial, I know ... but maybe you should read it before you decide whether it's wrong or not. Seemed a very well thought out comment to me.

This is the title...

"Could BitCoin be a decentralized password cracking system?"

This is the money quote...

"Could these mining processes be used to crack highly encrypted passwords and encryption keys by linking together computers for unmatched processing power?"

The answer is, no it cannot. Thus continuing is not worth my time. Anyone who can read the code, read the packets leaving their own computer, or even read blockexplorer.com, would know the answer to this question. Nothing, and I mean nothing is actually being encrypted or decrypted in the bitcoin system, and certainly not in the p2p portion. Bitcoin doesn't even use methods capable of encryption or decryption of arbitrary data. Bitcoin uses secure hashing methods and secure public/private digital signature methods. Nothing in bitcoin can actually do what it is accused of doing. The open nature of Bitcoin aside for just a moment, the code cannot actually do it. This crap is just FUD, and doesn't deserve the attention that I've already granted it.

That said, pool mining potentially could be used as cover for a distributed brute force cracking network, but pools are not Bitcoin.

What about making rainbow tables for the hash function?

Even that is easy to check for, since the packets entering or leaving your computer are not encrypted.