The cryptocurrency Bitcoin has not been without its problems. There have been numerous hacks leading to the loss of millions of dollars, and Bitcoin mining tool Epic Scale became embroiled in a crapware scandal with uTorrent. The latest problem to hit the digital currency is a double-spending bug.
As the name suggests, this essentially makes it possible to spend the same Bitcoins twice, and it stems from a problem with a planned upgrade. An issue with some Bitcoin miners means that tests that usually prevent double-spending are not correctly performed.
Double-spending is supposed to be thwarted by a safety mechanism which checks the block chain (or transaction database) to check whether any given Bitcoins have been spent or not. Some Bitcoin miners are now generating invalid blocks, making it impossible to guarantee that currency can’t be spent more than once.
As the name suggests, this essentially makes it possible to spend the same Bitcoins twice, and it stems from a problem with a planned upgrade. An issue with some Bitcoin miners means that tests that usually prevent double-spending are not correctly performed.
Double-spending is supposed to be thwarted by a safety mechanism which checks the block chain (or transaction database) to check whether any given Bitcoins have been spent or not. Some Bitcoin miners are now generating invalid blocks, making it impossible to guarantee that currency can’t be spent more than once.
