Hard Cap of 21 Million Bitcoins Was At Risk This Weekend

[wry]

This news story blew me away.  I had seen on Bitcointalk that there was a "required" upgrade to the latest version of Bitcoin Core but since I don't use Core I hadn't thought much about it.

However, today I read this news story that the bug was potentially very dangerous, a core developer found that it could have been exploited to create more bitcoins, even violating the 21 million hard cap on them.  Having always assumed that limit was guaranteed by math, I found it pretty alarming.  

https://www.coindesk.com/the-latest-bitcoin-bug-was-so-bad-developers-kept-its-full-details-a-secret/

While the price decline this year has been bad only something like this, that actually threatens the Bitcoin project itself, would cause me to give up on it.

Heres the actual official report:  https://bitcoincore.org/en/2018/09/20/notice/

[Jakubb]

Yeah, this is just incredible, 21 Bitcoins. Absolutely crazy, thanks for sharing. I did hear this on some bitcoin news, but seriously, i can't believe it..

[williamshennie9]

Wow, I think that is a big wake up call for those of us holding cryptos  I always thought bitcoin was safe, but I guess anything can be hacked if you have the technical know-how.

[wry]

Yes, the more I've thought about it the more disturbing I found it.  It wasn't a hack so much as a mistake when they were revising the code from one version of bitcoin core to another.  So it crept in, it hasn't always been there.

[bmg]

Wow wry that is  pretty unsettling to think that these bugs can just creep. Up and make everything in crypto world go mad

[wry]

On 9/26/2018 at 11:52 AM, bmg said:

Wow wry that is  pretty unsettling to think that these bugs can just creep. Up and make everything in crypto world go mad

Yeah, I feel a little better knowing that the bug has not been there the whole time, but it worries me as new things get added to Bitcoin, e.g. lighting network, that something else like this will happen.  I really believe in what bitcoin represents and this is a real threat to it.

And yes Daniel, they changed it back.

[ScooterPi]

That is incredible.  Hadn't seen this on the news yet.  

Ugh, the fallout from such a thing would be the worst. 

Thankfully, I donate all my btc to Stake operations and development teams! lol

[wry]

1 hour ago, ScooterPi said:

Thankfully, I donate all my btc to Stake operations and development teams! lol

LoL!!  Now that's really clever @ScooterPi!  I'm sure the bad guys will never think to look there for it!  You can trust Edward and Stunna to invest your BTC in real estate as they expand their private islands!

But seriously, I am dreading when this gets picked up in business media, BTC price may, legitimately for once, tank.