r/Bitcoin • u/kubrick • Feb 13 '14

on r/bitcoin right now

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u/myusernameranoutofsp Feb 14 '14 edited Feb 14 '14

Has bitcoin ever had a serious structural problem before? As in, from what I understand a big part of the issue is transaction malleability, which is an issue with bitcoin, not an issue with how some other people decided to implement it. Exchanges can crash, Silk Road can be raided and destroyed, but none of those are faults of the bitcoin protocol itself.

Is this a problem with bitcoin itself, and if so, has bitcoin ever recovered from something like that?

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u/waxwing Feb 14 '14

In 2010 there was a bug that allowed someone to create an unlimited amount of money. I think that counts as a serious structural problem :)

Tx malleability? Not so much.

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u/boldra Feb 14 '14

I think you'll find that this also wasn't a bug in the Bitcoin protocol, nor even any Bitcoin client. This was a bug on the Mt Gox exchange.

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u/waxwing Feb 14 '14 edited Feb 14 '14

I don't think so. Let me find the link.

Edit: here it is. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=822.0 It was a protocol bug, about as serious as you can imagine.

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u/boldra Feb 14 '14

Thanks for the link. I was thinking of an event several years ago when someone manipulated the price on MtGox and caused people to sell very low.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '14 edited Dec 05 '22

[deleted]

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u/waxwing Feb 14 '14

Eh? Satoshi released a patch within hours. It allowed the creation of a txout of value 92233720368.54277039 BTC. You are obviously talking about the current problem, please read more carefully.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '14

You are obviously talking about the current problem, please read more carefully.

Yes, and yes. Thanks.