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'Selfish miner' attack could devastate Bitcoin, researchers say |
November 05, 2013
Bitcoin is vulnerable to an attack that could have devastating effects on the virtual currency, but it can be fixed with a software update, according to researchers from Cornell University.The attack involves "miners," or people running computers that verify Bitcoin transactions, said Ittay Eyal, a post doctoral fellow at Cornell University's Department of Computer Science, who co-authored the study with Emin Gun Sire, a Cornell professor.Every 10 minutes, miners -- who usually collaborate in mining pools -- are rewarded with 25 bitcoins for lending their computing power to Bitcoin if they solve a cryptographic puzzle first. Miners process Bitcoin's transactions, which are recorded in its "blockchain," or public ledger.It has long been known that if a mining group controlled more than 50 percent of Bitcoin's processing power, the network could be subject to a variety of attacks if the group wanted to act maliciously. But the researchers show that small miners may unwittingly join a malicious group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2060840/selfish-miner-attack-could-devastate-bitcoin-researchers-say.html#tk.rss_all
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