How will Bitcoin Cash face bitPico Threats?

bitPico, an anonymous group has recently declared that they are currently developing numerous “attack nodes” online with the focus on Bitcoin Cash (51% attack) and will create “multiple forks”. There was a rumor in March 2018 that bitPico was responsible for the DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks against the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s proposed layer-two scaling solution. bitPico, in a Twitter post, had claimed the accusation to be true and revealed that they had created a network stress tool for the Lightning Network.

This means that the anonymous group was testing the network in adversarial conditions and checking out its strength. bitPico had revealed to the press its intentions, “as people with investment into bitcoin, we want to make sure layer-two solutions do not get [overwhelmed] out of the gate.” The measure was appreciated by many and Andreas Antonopoulos, Bitcoin lecturer had said that this free testing would give them the opportunity to strengthen the Lightning Network.

bitPico, it seems, now has turned their attention to Bitcoin Cash (BCH), as per their Twitter post on 22^nd June 2018. Their Twitter post read, “It’s time to determine how centralized @rogerkver really is and we are 100% confident we can split the network into multiple forks. Look forward to a 51% attack on the #bitcoin #cash chain this September.”

The next day itself, a Twitter post of bitPico read that the attack has already started and 5,000 “attack nodes” can be expected to run within the next few weeks. The stress test tool used by bitPico lately is also ready for “botnet deployment”.

Bitcoin Cash is quite vulnerable to hacking because nearly 85% of the Bitcoin Cash nodes are located in two data centers. BTC, compared to this is better equipped as it is Sybil proof and will protect unless 50,000 full non-pruned nodes are deployed.  But, the hack will not be accomplished so easily as all their nodes will have to validate bitPico’s payload.

Real World Stress Test

During the Bitcoin Cash Stress Test, the aim is to confirm millions of minimum fee transactions within 24 hours. The BCH Stress Test Day site said, “Such volume of minimum fee transactions will prove to merchants and businesses worldwide, and also to ourselves, that the BCH main network is capable of scaling on chain and is capable of handling such volume of transactions today.”

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has often been warned about the hard fork move and there have been allegations of instability, vulnerable to attacks and so on. However, Bitcoin Cash has till date defied all such critics and has climbed to the 4^th position in the cryptocurrency rank list of coinmarketcap.com. This should say something about the most successful hard fork of Bitcoin (BTC).

The stress test welcomes anyone who is eager to participate and the cost is very less per head as it will be spread across the community. Bitcoin Cash has more or less been dismissive of threats like that of bitPico and Zeger has emailed to Bitsonline, “No, I don’t know anything about it. It seems like nothing, I’ve heard others say that the fellow has made other outlandish claims before that amounted to nothing.”

The stress testing date is scheduled for 12^th September 2018, 12:00 UTC. In order to make this an annual event, the network has scheduled it before the BCH November upgrade. The aim is also to test apps, wallets and other services in stress. This way everyone will get useful data and they can use it to make further progress.

The testers assure that the capacity of the Bitcoin Cash network will be assured on that day and it will be a ray of hope for merchants, businesses and investors and they will be able to entrust the BCH network and its ability to scale on-chain. “You can also just like every comment on Memo.cash with 546 satoshi tip, or make lots of 546 satoshi donations to eatBCH.” Heck, chat up some buddies on the Kepyport app while you’re going about all the above, betting on “Satoshi Dice, Satoshi Bones or any other BCH online games.”

Price Details

The price of Bitcoin Cash, at the time of writing, shows approximately $753.18 USD (8.00%) while the market cap is nearly $12,956,527,343 USD. The volume (24h) shows over $574,268,000 USD. (As per coinmarketcap.com) June 2018 has seen some usual fluctuations with the price of BCH sometimes showing a negative slide. However, one can expect the price to rise in this year if Bitcoin Cash makes it through the stress test successfully.

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Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

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