Quote from: NewLiberty on October 01, 2014, 10:23:49 AM

Quote from: Este Nuno on October 01, 2014, 09:39:54 AM

Quote from: TheFascistMind on October 01, 2014, 09:21:25 AM

math

Hopefully you're feeling better if you're back on here.

Any thoughts on BCX's claim that an attack is in progress and might take up to 22 days to materialize?

So far, I have not seen, nor am I aware that anyone else has seen, any evidence of an attack in progress, and also no specific unaddressed vulnerability to an attack beyond DDoS (which as we all know is mitigated through decentralization).

The image a couple posts above has been analyzed for probabilistic distribution of timestamps... but remember, the in-chain timestamps of that nature wouldn't offer a definitive display of attack capability in this form anyway. These times are set by the miner that mines the block, and may not be accurate. They are not required by the protocol to be accurate for good reasons.

It is even normal to have blocks times stamped out of order in which they are hashed or received (as is the case in the snapshot sample shown where 235645 is stamped a second after 235656).¹ This can happen for many reasons. NTP failures are common. It can also be intentionally set incorrectly, but there is no ill effect from this other than that it can confuse some people. Those times are indicative only.

It would be a different matter entirely if a great number of freshly hashed blocks in a chain were received in rapid succession. This is no where evidenced in the XMR block chain to date, and nothing else has been offered by way of evidence of a credible threat.

¹ This may be what BCX was pointing to with the sentence: "Check the blocks just prior to the circle." Do not be confused into fear, by lack of knowledge. There is no evidence of wrongdoing in this chain sample.

Do you think it's safe to say that by now we would be seeing a lot more odd blocks if an actual attack was underway?