Analyzing 7 Methods Of “Possible Bitcoin Attacks”

There have been some articles on the Internet, and they have come up with suggestions on how to attack and destroy the bitcoin system.

Especially since mid-December, the price of Bitcoin began to fluctuate after reaching a new high of US$ 20,000. The biggest drop was nearly 40%, and many Bitcoin users began to doubt the reliability of the Bitcoin system.

The following is an analysis of some frequently mentioned attack methods discussed whether Bitcoin can be killed.

Method 1- 51% Attack

[Attack Plan]- Attackers spend huge sums of money to purchase or rent many numerous mining machines, which exceeds 51% of the total power and form a 51% attack. This can tamper with block data and create double flowers, leading to a burst of trust in Bitcoin.

Analysis- First of all, the current total strength of Bitcoin network has reached astronomical figures, it will constitute 51% of attacks, tens of billions of dollars of funds, and can not change the historical transactions, in addition to no other benefits can be double. Therefore, no individual or institution has the financial and motivation to do this except for the state machine. The use of such a huge amount of money by the state machine cannot be without any sign and it will have a strong international response. Making such a decision is not an easy task.

Second, launching a 51% attack is not an overnight process. It takes a rather long process, and the Bitcoin network’s distribution of force is visible in real time, and it will be discovered by the community before reaching 51%. Historically, there have been: In 2014, the computing power of the Ghash.io mine pool had reached over 51% in the short term, which caused the community to be vigilant and issued a warning. The miners consciously evacuated the mine pool and quickly lowered the computing power to a safe level.

Third, if the attackers continue to increase their computing power as they go their own way, the remaining miners can isolate them in a collective manner by shielding the IP of the mine pool, forming a substantial hard fork, and then through extensive publicity, the end-users choose to abandon the attack. The blockchain makes the attacker’s computing power useless.

Fourth, developers of Bitcoin also have an “ultimate nuclear weapon”, which is to modify the consensus algorithm. Only by changing a few lines of critical code in the consensus algorithm can all the miners be scrapped. Back in the era of CPU/GPU mining, the attackers and all the miners will be together and the Bitcoin network will still work. In short, the 51% attack is not only costly, but it is actually impossible to achieve its purpose.

Method 2- Off-Net Attack

[Attack Plan]- Currently, Bitcoin’s transaction message is not encrypted, and the first 4 bytes are always 0xF9BEB4D9, which is easily filtered out. By analyzing the Bitcoin messages, they are masked on the backbone network according to their characteristics, so that Bitcoin nodes cannot send and receive transactions, and even destroy the entire Bitcoin network.

Analysis- First, the means of attack is feasible within a country. However, the Bitcoin node in the country can use VPN or Bitcoin wallet software on the Tor network. All the packets are encrypted and no longer have the above features.

Secondly, Bitcoin software developers can modify the software and directly use the obscured and encrypted packets to interact with the network. Although the performance will be affected, the above screening methods will naturally not be effective.

Third, even if some countries can technically block all Bitcoin transactions, as long as there are other countries that have not implemented screening, the Bitcoin network will be able to function normally and the purpose of killing Bitcoin cannot be achieved.

Traders in the masked countries can interact with the Bitcoin network through other means, such as WeChat, e-mail, satellites, etc., and can still trade, but it is just a lot of trouble.

Method 3- Difficulty Attack

[Attack Plan]- Through DDoS attacks on most of the mine pool nodes, it can not participate in billing, resulting in a sharp decline in the whole network computing power, and the difficulty of mining will not follow the downward adjustment, resulting in the entire billing delay. The money remitted abroad cannot be confirmed to arrive in the hands of the payee.

Analysis- There are two kinds of countermeasures. The first is that the mine pool replaces the IP address and leaves the attack. As long as there is a considerable part of the mine pool out of the attack range, the entire Bitcoin network can still operate normally.

Method 4- Virus Attack

[Attack Plan]- Inject virus into wallet software and steal Bitcoins.

Analysis- This kind of attack is feasible, but it can only be done for individuals and it cannot affect the entire Bitcoin network.

In fact, Bitcoin Wallet’s viruses and Trojan horses are constantly emerging and thefts are frequent, but it does not affect people’s confidence in Bitcoin and anti-virus software companies are constantly updating preventive measures.

Method 5- Quantum Attack

[Attack Plan]- As the quantum computer technology matures, it is possible to use the powerful quantum computer to crack Bitcoin’s encryption algorithm in the future, thus destroying the entire bitcoin system, resulting in Bitcoin becoming worthless.

Analysis- First of all, Bitcoin uses many numerous of encryption algorithms (and hash algorithms) to ensure the security of the system. These algorithms are internationally-available algorithms that are widely used in various industries (including banking). When quantum computers evolve to crack these algorithms, it’s not only Bitcoin that’s a threat but humanity as well.

Secondly, there are already many anti-quantum attack encryption algorithms in the academic community. They only consider that performance issues have not been adopted by the industry. Bitcoin has been designed to take into account the possibility of replacing encryption algorithms in the future. The new digital currency Hcash for encryption algorithms is also coming soon.

Method 6- Exchange Attack

[Attack Plan]- Attack or close the exchange, and cut the channel between the legal currency and the Bitcoin transaction and destroy market confidence.

Analysis- This method was used in China, but the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed, fully demonstrating its ineffectiveness. Bitcoin is not a digital currency of a country. As long as the international market still exists, it cannot be destroyed. Moreover, even if the exchange is closed, people can trade off-exchange or de-centralize the exchange.

Method 7- Hard Fork Attack

[Attack Plan]- Constantly changing the parameters or algorithms of the Bitcoin wallet software leads to a large number of hard forks. The purpose is to disperse Bitcoin user groups and reduce Bitcoin’s network effect. When each forked user group becomes very small, it is easy to kill Bitcoin.

Analysis- Bitcoin cash forked hard for the first time in August 2017. It had caused bitcoin users to be extremely worried, but in fact, it did not cause any bad influence on bitcoin. Afterward, a large number of hard fork coins frequently appeared. Both Bitcoin prices and trading volumes rose. Unexpected results have fully proved the infeasibility of hard fork attacks.

Conclusion- So, how can we really kill Bitcoin?

First, all the Bitcoin development teams are on the conservative side, are self-styled, and no longer absorb the latest scientific and technological achievements to improve themselves, so that the emergence of new digital currency technical indicators in all aspects beyond Bitcoin, widely accepted by the community, and thus to replace Bitcoin. This is the failure of Bitcoin, but it is also the success of virtual digital currency.

Second, there are serious loopholes in the Bitcoin protocol or wallet software. As a result, the security of the entire Bitcoin system cannot be guaranteed. There is a large area of funds stolen, sold off and uncontrollable in the short term. The confidence of the community in bitcoin is completely lost.

It can thus be seen that due to the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, it is impossible to kill Bitcoin from external attacks. Only Bitcoin can kill itself.

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