Jimmy Song on the Game Theory of Bitcoin Attacks and why Proof of Work Needs to be Expensive

Mr Obnoxious - Un pódcast de Peter McCormack

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Interview location: Skype
Interview date: Mon, 1st October 2018
Company: Programming Blockchain | Blockchain Capital

The recent Bitcoin protocol bug, CVE-2018-1744, received considerable amounts of alarmist press, “For less than $80,000, you could have brought down the entire network,” “The most catastrophic bug in recent years, and certainly one of the most catastrophic bugs in Bitcoin ever.” Despite these claims, few looked into the detail of the bug and the game theory behind executing an attack.

Code has bugs; code has always had bugs, rather than focus on criticising developers it is important to assess how it happened, why it happened and how to avoid similar problems in the future. Alongside process, it is also important to not just analyse the potential damage a bug can cause but also the game theory behind an attack.

While the founder of the bug, Awemany, used his discovery of the bug to launch a scathing and personal attack on Bitcoin, Jimmy Song analysed the bug, how it could be exploited and the game theory behind such an attack.

This week I caught up with Jimmy to discuss his findings, and also:
- State level attacks
- Mining centralisation
- 51% attack game theory
- Why proof of work needs to be expensive
- How non-techies can support Bitcoin

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Helpful Links:

Connect with Jimmy:
- On Twitter @Jimmy Song
- On Medium
- On LinkedIn
- On YouTube
- On GitHub
- On Crunchbase

Business links:
- Programming Blockchain
- Blockchain Capital

Relevant posts by Jimmy:
- The Inflation Bitcoin Bug and what Happened YouTube
- Bitcoin Core Bug CVE-2018–17144: An Analysis
- Why Blockchain is Hard
- Mining Centralization Scenarios
- Segwit2x Game Theory Scenarios Part 1

Other important articles
- Awemany’s article on discovering the bug: 600 Microseconds
- Corey fields article on discovering a bug in Bitcoin Cash: Responsible disclosure in the era of cryptocurrencies
- Bitcoin Core: CVE-2018-17144 Full Disclosure
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Details of One of Bitcoin’s Nastiest Bugs Yet
- 'Bitcoin Bug' Exploited on Crypto Fork as Attacker Prints 235 Million Pigeoncoins

Other topics discussed:
- Schnorr Signature
- Zero-Knowledge Proof
- 51% Attacks
- Casa Lightning Node

Other relevant WBD podcasts:
- WBD034: Why Crypto Privacy is Important with Monero's Riccardo "FluffyPony" Spagni
- WBD030: Teaching C# Developers to Integrate Bitcoin within their Applications with Vortex
- WBD028: Bitcoin Maximalism with Pierre Rochard
- WBD018: Bitcoin Scaling and Lightning Network with Jameson Lopp
- WBD003: Bitcoin Philosophy and Tech with Jameson Lopp

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