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Bitcoin 0.8.6 Released: Updates Block Size Limits, Free Transactions, OS X Bugs

140 points by CrunchyJams 13y ago

aroch 13y ago
No one claimed the 10BTC bug bounty for the OSX client, so its all a matter of hoping things are fixed
- jontaylor 13y ago
  http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin-leveldb/ http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin-leveldb/
- gojomo 13y ago
  This seems like a reasonably strong claim - and has the post title, "Claiming Bitcoin's Bug Bounty": http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin-leveldb/ http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin-leveldb/ The corruption explained there matched the pattern seen in representative cases supplied by the core team. The core team may not have yet awarded the bounty, and there were a few other possibly contributing factors regarding proper use of LevelDB on OSX before the above work... but there's certainly a strong case made that a real fix has been discovered and deployed.
- maaku 13y ago
  It's been claimed (see the other replies). Just waiting on confirmation that this fixes the problem entirely before paying out, I believe.
AsymetricCom 13y ago
Seems kind if weird that Bitcoin (actually bitcoind) itself would be dependent on a google-developed database solution that isn't open source, and not only that, has non-determinate behavior, depending on the host system..
- teraflop 13y ago
  Why do you think LevelDB isn't open source? https://code.google.com/p/leveldb/ https://code.google.com/p/leveldb/
  - asperous 13y ago
    Also some history: Satoshi's original client used BerkeleyDB which had a configuration issue that almost destroyed Bitcoin. https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0050.mediawiki https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0050.mediawi...
  - AsymetricCom 13y ago
    Because it has dependencies on libs that are not open source, so that means "closed" as propagated across this "open" system.
    - teraflop 13y ago
      I was assuming you were mistaken, but it's starting to look like you're just making things up. LevelDB has no dependencies other the Snappy compression codec, which is both optional and BSD-licensed.
- maaku 13y ago
  > has non-determinate behavior, depending on the host system.. Care to provide details?
  - AsymetricCom 13y ago
    RTFA
    - maaku 13y ago
      The fine article does not describe indeterminate platform-specific behavior within LevelDB. I assume you are talking about Mac corruption fix which Robert Escriva put in. This problem was with the behavior of munmap on Darwin, and did not result in the leveldb database being in a usable platform-specific state.
ck2 13y ago
Bitcoin is about to break 1 Billion difficulty. The leap in difficulty must mean all the 500-600Ghash/sec 28nm ASICs are coming online.
- ostikk 13y ago
  Given that there has been a 8x growth in price, miners must still be profitable at this point? If I were an ASIC supplier, I would be delaying shipping and "alpha testing" those hardware in times like this
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - humbledrone 13y ago
    > * If I were an ASIC supplier, I would be delaying shipping and "alpha testing" those hardware in times like this* I'm glad that you're not an ASIC supplier, because that's fraudulent and dishonest.
    - sliverstorm 13y ago
      Implying the ASIC suppliers aren't?
  - SectioAurea 13y ago
    Deja vu all over again.
  - ck2 13y ago
    At 500ghash/sec you can only make half a coin per day now. I would imagine they burn in test for 24 hours but with so many units to build they would have to rotate them out. Soon a $5000 machine like that will only make a quarter coin per day.
nhilma 13y ago
By lifting min output for free transction does the bitcoin network become more vulnerable to DDOS?
bloggersway 13y ago
a viral project
newsmaster 13y ago
Genuine question: Does this mean Btc is not so decentralized after all? Could they possibly decide one day to release an update to exercise ultimate control/power over btc?
- haakon 13y ago
  It's certainly a point of trust, but ultimately it's the miners who decide how Bitcoin works. So far this has predominantly worked by them using software from bitcoin.org and upgrading it relatively frequently, but this would probably change very quickly once they stop thinking of the bitcoin.org developers as working in their interest.
- unlimited_power 13y ago
  There are alternative full-node implementations. A couple examples: https://opensource.conformal.com/wiki/btcd https://opensource.conformal.com/wiki/btcd https://darkwallet.unsystem.net/ https://darkwallet.unsystem.net/

140 points by CrunchyJams 13y ago

aroch 13y ago

No one claimed the 10BTC bug bounty for the OSX client, so its all a matter of hoping things are fixed

jontaylor 13y ago
http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin-leveldb/ http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin-leveldb/
gojomo 13y ago
This seems like a reasonably strong claim - and has the post title, "Claiming Bitcoin's Bug Bounty": http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin-leveldb/ http://hackingdistributed.com/2013/11/27/bitcoin-leveldb/ The corruption explained there matched the pattern seen in representative cases supplied by the core team. The core team may not have yet awarded the bounty, and there were a few other possibly contributing factors regarding proper use of LevelDB on OSX before the above work... but there's certainly a strong case made that a real fix has been discovered and deployed.
maaku 13y ago
It's been claimed (see the other replies). Just waiting on confirmation that this fixes the problem entirely before paying out, I believe.

AsymetricCom 13y ago

Seems kind if weird that Bitcoin (actually bitcoind) itself would be dependent on a google-developed database solution that isn't open source, and not only that, has non-determinate behavior, depending on the host system..

teraflop 13y ago
Why do you think LevelDB isn't open source? https://code.google.com/p/leveldb/ https://code.google.com/p/leveldb/
- asperous 13y ago
  Also some history: Satoshi's original client used BerkeleyDB which had a configuration issue that almost destroyed Bitcoin. https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0050.mediawiki https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0050.mediawi...
- AsymetricCom 13y ago
  Because it has dependencies on libs that are not open source, so that means "closed" as propagated across this "open" system.
  - teraflop 13y ago
    I was assuming you were mistaken, but it's starting to look like you're just making things up. LevelDB has no dependencies other the Snappy compression codec, which is both optional and BSD-licensed.
maaku 13y ago
> has non-determinate behavior, depending on the host system.. Care to provide details?
- AsymetricCom 13y ago
  RTFA
  - maaku 13y ago
    The fine article does not describe indeterminate platform-specific behavior within LevelDB. I assume you are talking about Mac corruption fix which Robert Escriva put in. This problem was with the behavior of munmap on Darwin, and did not result in the leveldb database being in a usable platform-specific state.

ck2 13y ago

Bitcoin is about to break 1 Billion difficulty. The leap in difficulty must mean all the 500-600Ghash/sec 28nm ASICs are coming online.

ostikk 13y ago
Given that there has been a 8x growth in price, miners must still be profitable at this point? If I were an ASIC supplier, I would be delaying shipping and "alpha testing" those hardware in times like this
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- humbledrone 13y ago
  > * If I were an ASIC supplier, I would be delaying shipping and "alpha testing" those hardware in times like this* I'm glad that you're not an ASIC supplier, because that's fraudulent and dishonest.
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    Implying the ASIC suppliers aren't?
- SectioAurea 13y ago
  Deja vu all over again.
- ck2 13y ago
  At 500ghash/sec you can only make half a coin per day now. I would imagine they burn in test for 24 hours but with so many units to build they would have to rotate them out. Soon a $5000 machine like that will only make a quarter coin per day.

nhilma 13y ago

By lifting min output for free transction does the bitcoin network become more vulnerable to DDOS?

bloggersway 13y ago

a viral project

newsmaster 13y ago

Genuine question: Does this mean Btc is not so decentralized after all? Could they possibly decide one day to release an update to exercise ultimate control/power over btc?

haakon 13y ago
It's certainly a point of trust, but ultimately it's the miners who decide how Bitcoin works. So far this has predominantly worked by them using software from bitcoin.org and upgrading it relatively frequently, but this would probably change very quickly once they stop thinking of the bitcoin.org developers as working in their interest.
unlimited_power 13y ago
There are alternative full-node implementations. A couple examples: https://opensource.conformal.com/wiki/btcd https://opensource.conformal.com/wiki/btcd https://darkwallet.unsystem.net/ https://darkwallet.unsystem.net/