Bitcoin exchange MtGox faced 150,000 attacks per second: report

[Dreamwalker.]

http://phys.org/news/2014-03-bitcoin-exchange-mtgox.html

"

Bitcoin exchange MtGox faced massive hacker offensives last month, coming under some 150,000 DDoS attacks per second for several days"

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-03-bitcoin-exchange-mtgox.html#jCp

I have been watching bitcoin...............that and the concept of using the blockchain for all govt. and financial transactions seems to be to be a significant threat to the gangster status quoe of our present regimes......................I figured a good time to buy in again might be after the inevitable prolonged attack. from the gangster corp...................."High frequency traders" have systems that could sustain an attack like this..............any bodies guess?

Edited March 10, 2014 by Dreamwalker

[DELETED ACCOUNT]

I've been following this too. I suspect the DDoS attacks on Mt. Gox leading up to the theft event were an organised diversion from those who knew how to crack the system.

Unless I've misunderstood how Bitcoin works, I wonder why Mt. Gox's funds can't be traced by inspecting the blockchain for transactions from their accounts to see where all those Bitcoins got to after the theft.

Although, if the Sheep Marketplace theft is anything to go by, they're probably all long gone. Makes me wonder, if Mt. Gox's failure was an inside job, as the Sheep Marketplace was alleged to have been.

Surely it mustn't be easy to launder 480 million USD in Bitcoins.

Dreamwalker, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the attack wasn't undertaken by individuals but by some government organisation wanting to quash another financial system they can't control... although it's probably more likely that some smart crackers just make themselves very very rich, not to mention very very wanted...

[ThunderIdeal]

Gox had been copping it for ages and handling themselves quite well (well enough to hang onto most coinsters as loyal customers). I would comment on what actually brought them down except its not actually clear what happened or whether they are truly kaput or just stating theyre kaput to oblige a US gag order.

id it was actually transaction malleability theft because of their internal transaction method then that's the rapid evolution of btc for ya. Fatal errors prove fatal and anyone invested in the maladapted outfit should prepare for the likelihood that their investment is already smoke. Irretrievable.

at least in the meantime people are forces outside of gox to reinvigorate the competition

one of the sad truths is that simply using bitcoin is already a massive leap outside of what they know and feel comfortable with and a trailblazing friend probably whispered comforting things so they didn't freak out when they surfed beyond Facebook (small exaggeration). If something better comes along, especially if it requires comprehending and mastering new features, theyll just stays where they are. In some ways bitcoin begs its users to take advantage of razors edge competitiveness, but its users are lazy and cautious, and some are wondering why the postman hasn't delivered their coin yet.

[Dreamwalker.]

Unless I've misunderstood how Bitcoin works, I wonder why Mt. Gox's funds can't be traced by inspecting the blockchain for transactions from their accounts to see where all those Bitcoins got to after the theft.

That's what has me perplexed...............I obviously don't understand the blockchain...................because I thought that all transactions become a part of the blockchain.....like a never ending story.........so the new owners of the stolen coin would be listed...............hence there can be no fraud ......................but that cannot be the case..........bitcoin 2 needs to incorporate that.

[DELETED ACCOUNT]

I thought that all transactions become a part of the blockchain.....like a never ending story

I think this is right, although now it seems that Bitcoin wallets alleged to be owned by Mt. Gox are being emptied in very many small transactions, making it hard (but not altogether impossible, I would guess) to track where the funds are going.

See: http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/view/37360/so-where-are-mt-goxs-stolen-bitcoin-millions/

The transactions appear to be so numerous and regular that it is thought that automated code is performing the splitting. I'm guessing this isn't beyond the capabilities of a clever cracker.

....so the new owners of the stolen coin would be listed...............hence there can be no fraud

No, I think it's more complicated than that. I'm guessing it's actually quite hard to detect real fraud because Bitcoin wallets are anonymous.

For example, consider what happens to some Bitcoins from a Mt. Gox. wallet (A), which are transferred to some anonymous wallet , and then to [C], ... etc., ..., [X], [Y], and finally to [Z].

We can't simply assume that if the account holder of wallet [Z] cashes some Bitcoin out as real dollars that they are the thief, as transaction [G] -> [H] somewhere along the line may have been a purchase for goods/services from a legitimate business [H], for which [G] was partly using stolen funds some of which originated from [A], the rest from other sources. What business [H] does with it's Bitcoins from then on may be completely legitimate/legal. Also, perhaps [G] was also a legitimate business/law-abiding entity, and they received their Bitcoins from some other transaction which included some of the stolen Bitcoins, from [F] -> [G]. Because of the anonymity of the accounts, I don't think we can never be certain.

So, these Bitcoins will probably just disappear into the vast network of transactions between anonymous accounts...

Edited March 10, 2014 by antoncan

[at0m]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/search?q=mtgox&restrict_sr=on&t=week

Read through some of these.

tl;dr We don't REALLY know what's going on.

Exchanges always happen off chain anyway so you'd need internal records which we haven't, legitimately, received. Only some 'hacked' copies which are dubious.

[DELETED ACCOUNT]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/search?q=mtgox&restrict_sr=on&t=week

Read through some of these.

tl;dr We don't REALLY know what's going on.

Exchanges always happen off chain anyway so you'd need internal records which we haven't, legitimately, received. Only some 'hacked' copies which are dubious.

Interesting, I hadn't realised that transactions could be performed "off-chain". Thanks!

It's pretty unnerving that Mt. Gox and all the funds it held in trust are now gone, all 480 million USD, that's nuts. If that had happened to a traditional bank (someone might remember the failure of the Pyramid Building Society back in the 90s), we'd probably hear more about it, but as it happens, it seems coverage of the failure of Mt. Gox has been relatively tame.

EDIT: Actually, I was wrong.... the 'net is still flush with ongoing news stories about the Mt. Gox failure. I suppose because it's an "international" event, and not strictly an Australian one, I don't see it more often in local news.

Edited March 12, 2014 by antoncan

[Dreamwalker.]

its shocking ...really brings it home reading personal accounts........................You can keep them in your own wallet .......can't you?

Why do people use Mt cox etc to hold onto their coins?

[DELETED ACCOUNT]

Why do people use Mt cox etc to hold onto their coins?

This is something which I find strange too, albeit only now with the benefit of hindsight, and a little more understanding of how Mt. Gox operated.

Most users just wanting to dabble (and undoubtedly more serious users too) probably simply found using Mt. Gox easy. Hey, I even signed up for an account, and considered buying some Bitcoins to keep in an account there, without understanding how the whole thing actually worked. Good thing I'm a lazy fucker.

It makes much more sense to maintain your own wallet for the sake of security. Using a so-called "web-wallet" like Mt. Gox might be convenient, but as we keep seeing, unsafe.

[DELETED ACCOUNT]

I found a very cool presentation describing how Bitcoin works, if anyone is interested.

[Dreamwalker.]

stay away from the cloud's I guess.................

[at0m]

A lot of people still had coins in gox because it's an exchange. They were likely verified there and didn't see the point in (or were in the process of) transferring to another exchange where they'd have to re-verify their identities, etc. Additionally, I will admit, gox looks like one of the nicer bitcoin exchanges. It had all the features of a good exchange but the code and management was horrible.

Fwiw, my favourite BTC wallet is Electrum. The biggest reason being it using remote blockchains which means you don't need to download the 13gb (more?) blockchain which is just unfeasible for some.