Could a bitcoin "inflation bug" happen again, creating a risk of fake bitcoin?
352 sats \ 4 comments \ @siggy47 14 Apr 2023 bitcoin
I was reading this article and I admit I was pretty surprised. I was just a casual bitcoin buyer back in 2018, and I don't remember hearing about it. I'm wondering what SN members think about the significance of this event, and whether there is a likelihood that a similar bug may currently exist or be exposed in the future?
The possibility that fake bitcoin could be created, violating the 21 million cap, is a scary scenario.
I did hear about the inflation bug that Satoshi patched in the early days, but I'm surprised this more recent situation is not more widely discussed.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @benthecarman 14 Apr 2023
It could happen again but doesn't mean fake bitcoin will be created. Because bitcoin doesn't hard fork we have lots of old nodes running on the network. Even if that inflation bug was exploited it wouldn't have actually caused a inflation. What would have happened is that nodes thinking it was valid would have split off from the network. Eventually once they patched they'd come back to the real bitcoin without the split and inflation.
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20 sats \ 1 reply \ @chungkingexpress 14 Apr 2023
I tracked this article down: https://bitcoincore.org/en/2018/09/20/notice/
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 OP 14 Apr 2023
Nice find. Much more information here. I'll try to absorb it.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @chungkingexpress 14 Apr 2023
Interesting, I would like to know the story of this too.
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