Bitcoin

DeFi

Planet

Rare

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 Several Bitcoin developers are outraged at a fellow enthusiast who admitted to “griefing” one of Bitcoin’s testnets by generating three years’ worth of blocks in a week. 
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This caused some developers to pause the applications they were testing, and many of the affected entities expressed their displeasure with the act. 
<div class="intro-text"> 
 Francis Pouliot, founder of Bull Bitcoin, a non-custodial Bitcoin exchange and payments firm, condemned the individual responsible in <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://twitter.com/francispouliot_/status/1784937565205737910?t=eS0PGjFaHdpY94TBxX_nyA&amp;s=19">a social media post</a> on April 29, 2024. He labelled them a “douchebag loser” for jeopardizing the testing efforts of open-source Bitcoin application developers and wasting their time. 
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<blockquote class="pullquote align-center">
 “Cool, you’re able to attack a network with no economic incentives, and literally the only damage done is messing with the tests of open-source Bitcoin application builders and wasting their time,” 
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he <a href="https://twitter.com/francispouliot_/status/1784937565205737910?t=eS0PGjFaHdpY94TBxX_nyA&amp;s=19">wrote</a>. 
The person responsible for the act, Jameson Lopp, a cypherpunk and a founder at digital asset self-custody solution Casa, had identified himself the day before in an April 28 <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://njump.me/nevent1qqsv23cmpg5jym2grz45psr43dwxs9r88ul40sum8v6uxxhhe95ha9qzyrmj3k0xuuzgxk88pyc0tjnykzthwrvcnnxcdp20ucvwm2wg5wqsvrg0xh4">post</a> on the decentralized social media platform Nostr. 
Lopp <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://njump.me/nevent1qqsg5df07578yrgeklnn4jr2gx0q6ytf8rwdja48yl5mckjx5r302acpr4mhxue69uhkummnw3ez6ur4vgh8wetvd3hhyer9wghxuet5qgs99d9qw67th0wr5xh05de4s9k0wjvnkxudkgptq8yg83vtulad30gcqlutw">stated</a> that his griefing attack generated over 165,000 blocks (three years’ worth) on Bitcoin’s testnet in a single week, costing only about $1 in electricity. 
Lopp defended his actions, <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://nostr.band/note1gqmuxhqlralppv8ljcvxk3esxdz7nw48dvlqnmxxs5ws0wes8rcsaq63jq">arguing</a> that the “trivial exploit” — which required just 20 lines of code — highlights a weakness of the testnet that he had previously pointed out. He noted that such drastic measures were necessary to draw attention to the vulnerability. “I’m championing a cause, and sometimes you have to do more than send an email to get people’s attention.” Lopp wrote.&nbsp; 
Despite Lopp’s rationale, <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://twitter.com/francispouliot_/status/1784998933569196293?t=WiHe7k2q-zwpbm4j4DRoGA&amp;s=19">Pouliot</a> and others view the actions differently; they liken them to someone “taking a dump” in a jacuzzi just to get people to “move to another spa.” 
Leo Weese, technical content lead at Lightning Labs, the company behind the Bitcoin layer-2 Lightning Network, <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://twitter.com/LeoAW/status/1784825172018463086?t=Zo9UUthxJ51i35A5PNSh2g&amp;s=19">suggested </a>that permanent closure of permission-less testing networks might be necessary. He noted that the griefing attack interrupted node syncing on the Bitcoin testnet. 
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RELATED: <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://defi-planet.com/2024/04/solo-bitcoin-miner-strikes-gold-claims-full-block-reward-in-rare-feat/">Solo Bitcoin Miner Strikes Gold: Claims Full Block Reward in Rare Feat</a> 
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A member in the Bitcoin Talk Thread <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://coinfaucet.eu/en/btc-testnet/">said</a> Lopp’s actions had sparked a “testnet war,” suggesting that people like Lopp should be excluded from Bitcoin’s testnet. The member even went as far as saying Lopp is a “general security risk for Bitcoin as a whole.” 
Lopp <a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1784958968168628265?t=1tEQlDi3qGtya9_Y8Libag&amp;s=19">proposed</a> resetting Bitcoin’s testnet to fix the testnet “timewarp” weakness and to restore mining rewards earned from the testnet, which he noted are practically zero now. 
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The post <a href="https://defi-planet.com/2024/04/bitcoin-developer-sparks-controversy-with-testnet-griefing-attack/">Bitcoin Developer Sparks Controversy with Testnet ‘Griefing’ Attack</a> appeared first on <a href="https://defi-planet.com">DeFi Planet</a>.

Bitcoin Developer Sparks Controversy with Testnet ‘Griefing’ Attack

DeFi Planet

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