Vulnerability found in the Bitcoin network

The Trail of Bits company, which deals with cybersecurity issues, has submitted a report regarding a vulnerability in the Bitcoin network. It states that 60 per cent of Bitcoin protocol network traffic passes through only three providers.

Trail’s “Are Blockchains Decentralized” Study of Bits, commissioned by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), found that different scenarios could lead to centralized control of the Bitcoin network.

In turn, ISPs that provide access to the network, as it turned out, can deny service to any node or reduce the quality of communication.

At the moment, the largest provider in the Bitcoin code network is Tor. This provider routes traffic to at least 50% of nodes. Some operate through the Tor network, and the other half through onion addresses. The third provider is AS 24940 from Germany. It routes 10% of nodes.

Experts also pointed out that BTC network traffic is not encrypted; any third party on the network (inter-node) route, be it the ISP itself, the Wi-Fi operator access points or law enforcement agencies of the government, can monitor the traffic, as well as adjust it at their discretion.

It also states that at least 21 per cent of Bitcoin nodes are running an older version of the Bitcoin client. Core, which has vulnerability issues.

The experts also noted the importance of running all DLT (Distributed Ledger System) nodes on the latest software version. Without migrating to such a later version, a blockchain fork is risky.

Bitcoin is in a difficult period now, and its value cannot gain a foothold above the $20,000 mark. There are different opinions about how the situation with the leading cryptocurrency will develop. There are even apocalyptic predictions that it will cost only a few thousand dollars. Any prediction now can be right or wrong.

And the fact that a vulnerability was discovered in the Bitcoin network is proven. How it is going to be eliminated is still unclear.

Meanwhile, the very fact that such a large-scale network is under the control of only three providers raises, and not without reason, a big question – what kind of decentralization can we talk about in this case?

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