Jameson Lopp, co-founder of self-custody solution Casa, recently made a bold move that stirred the Bitcoin community. Lopp conducted a “griefing attack” on one of Bitcoin’s testnets. The disruption caused significant difficulties for developers relying on the testnet’s stability to test new applications.
The incident, which played out last week, saw the generation of over 165,000 blocks. This amount is approximately equivalent to three years of activity. Moreover, Lopp claimed that he executed his action with just 20 lines of code and about $1 worth of electricity.
Lopp’s Griefing Attack Sparks Fury Despite His “Good” Motives
Griefing, in the context of network operations, involves the intentional spamming of transactions to overload a system. While the attack on a testnet typically carries no direct financial gain for the attacker, the impact on regular users can be substantial. This attack often renders the network difficult to use for its intended purpose.
Lopp aimed to highlight a vulnerability within the testnet’s infrastructure, specifically a “timewarp” issue he had previously pointed out. Despite the chaos, Lopp defended his actions as necessary for the greater good of Bitcoin’s technological health.
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“All I’m doing is demonstrating the weakness that my original post suggested fixing. Simple as that. Sometimes folks don’t believe an email, they need to feel the effects,” Lopp explained in a Nostr post following the attack.
However, the attack did not sit well with many in the Bitcoin development community. Leo Weese from Lightning Labs expressed his dismay over the practical implications of the attack.
“This is what it looks like trying to sync a testnet node right now. There are thousands of new blocks per hour, so no matter how fast you sync, you can never reach the tip,” Weese lamented, highlighting the operational nightmares caused by the sudden influx of data.
Meanwhile, Francis Pouliot, founder of BullBitcoin.com, was less diplomatic in his critique.
“Whoever has been f****ng with testnet is a douchebag loser. Cool bro you’re able to attack a network with no economic incentives and literally the only damage done is f****ng with the tests of open-source Bitcoin application builders and wasting their time,” Pouliot commented angrily.
In response to the criticisms, Lopp remains steadfast. He hints at further disclosures about his methods and reasons through an essay he will publish next week.
“After I publish the details of what I’ve been doing, it will be even easier for any sufficiently technical Bitcoiner to reproduce,” he promised.
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The technical repercussions of the attack were clearly reflected in the hash rate data from the Bitcoin network’s testnet. Data from mempool.space shows a spike to 2,315 terahashes per second (TH/s) on April 20 before plummeting back to 86 TH/s by April 30.
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