Over the past year or so there’s been a lot of discussion concerning ‘attacks’ on the Bitcoin network. Across forums and social media, the subjective valuations from bitcoin proponents of what an ‘attack’ on the network really is has become an extremely contentious topic.
The Amplification of ‘Bitcoin Attacks’
In the early days, bitcoin enthusiasts occasionally talked about network attacks, typically discussing things like the 51 percent attack, quantum computer strikes, or an extreme denial of service onslaught from some central bank or government entity. However, these days the word ‘attack’ is used a bit more loosely than ever, as the scaling debate has made people believe almost everything is a Bitcoin network invasion.
For instance, when other development teams decided to create alternative clients, some individuals within the open source bitcoin community said that alternative implementations were offensive. Another example is when one side of the scaling debate told the other side to “go ahead and fork,” and they did, but were then considered ‘attackers.’ Further, the ASIC Boost controversy this year was also deemed an attack by some, while others believed it was merely mining hardware optimization.
This week was no different with the rising price of bitcoin cash and the legacy chain’s network congestion. One Reddit post exemplifies how lots of bitcoiners currently believe the network is under constant attack. The Redditor /u/logical states: […]
Read Full: Are 2017’s Network Attacks ”Real” or Are Bitcoiners Growing Paranoid?
