Bitcoin Core Developers Move to Fix Denial-of-Service Software Bug

An abnormally severe bug was discovered in bitcoin's software, prompting developers to put together and release a fix on Tuesday.

Fixed and revealed to the wider public by way of Bitcoin Core software version 0.16.3, the vulnerability is a denial-of-service bug.

The vulnerability was introduced in Bitcoin Core version 0.14.0, which was first released in March 2017.

Luckily, most bitcoin users don't have to do anything to be protected from the vulnerability now.

Still, because the bug is potentially dangerous for the network, developers strongly advise users who are running so-called "Full nodes" that store bitcoin's complete transaction history to upgrade their software.

As noted in the Bitcoin OpTech newsletter, a miner would need to try to double spend some bitcoin in order to crash bitcoin nodes.

Bitcoin Core contributor Luke Dashjr responded by arguing that exploits might not be decreasing over time as the data suggests.

He went on to admit he doesn't know why this is the case, but he nonetheless argued that some bugs in the bitcoin software are found and patched up, yet are never publicly disclosed.

Others are drawing other conclusions from the bug - namely that bitcoin programmers are mere mortals.

OpenBazaar lead developer Chris Pacia went as far as to argue that while many users argue that bitcoin developers are among the best in the world, this proves they're actually normal developers who run into obstacles.