Hi guys,
Again, I love the spirit of Bitcoin and I hope the attack I'm outlining in public helps the Bitcoin project to better understand possible points of failure. Unfortunately, based on your answers I'm starting to believe that the attack outlined in my Quora question (please check the latest edit at
http://www.quora.com/Is-Bitcoin-doomed-to-fail) is both technically feasible and economically profitable. This is scary. Correct me if I'm wrong, since I need to know this before deciding whether to invest some money to buy BTCs or not.
To theymos:
Some obstacles, however:
- It is possible for the double-spends to be removed if the community can come to an agreement about which transactions were real.
As noted by Freemoney, it's too late: goods and services are already in the hands of the attacker.
- The attacker needs to actually own enough BTC in order to double-spend them.
He should buy them before the attack.
- The attack will take a few hours, which is enough for many people to notice. Satoshi might broadcast an alert.
The attack should target less-sofisticated users who don't check all the forums at every given transaction. The transactions should be prepared before the attack, so that the provider is already ready to sell to the attacker before the attack starts.
- The price will plummet after the attack, reducing the profit.
Yes, it is reasonable to assume that the price of BTC will plummet. Unfortunately goods and services are already in the hands of the attacker. This means that the attacker looses nothing, while every BTC owner sees the value earned true labour or mining evaporate before his very eyes.