The site is home to Bitcoin Core, the most popular software version of bitcoin code. To be clear: Bitcoin’s blockchain itself was not attacked, only the site maintains one copy of its open source code.
Although the site is inaccessible, Bitcoiners spread the software to newcomers who wanted to download the code through a torrent service, an open source market for data sharing. Bitcoin Core client includes a “magnet link” (that random alphanumeric string in the tweet below) that can be manually shared to download Bitcoin Core from services like uTorrent and BitTorrent. From this link, the user can find the hash for where Bitcoin Core is stored on these services and download the software.
Known as the “denial of distributed service,” a DDoS attack occurs when a person or group uses multiple devices to spam a server or system with data requests, blocking its bandwidth and usually resulting in a web site inaccessible.
Bitcoin.org is now live again. Cobra, a pseudonym developer who helps maintain Bitcoin.org, told CoinDesk that DDoS attacks are not uncommon during hot price action and this particular attack may not be over.
“Basically, we were hit with large DDoS, which is quite common around ATHs (always highlights) and bull markets. It took us down for a while but for now we’re back up, but we may get down and away from time to time depending on how long the attackers want to last to attack. “
Cobra told CoinDesk that the IP traffic from the attack was in Russian, but anyone’s guess is the location of the attackers really. That’s because, in addition to the attackers using privacy-preserving tools such as virtual networks, most attackers launch DDoS attacks remotely from devices infected with malicious software, a fake and independent 6102 researcher told CoinDesk .
DDoS against a distributed network like blockchain – called a sybil attack – has never happened on a Bitcoin blockchain.