Bitcoin Code Review
Bitcoin Code Review- “Shock” is perhaps the word that best describes the mood ever since one of bitcoin’s most severe bugs was discovered and patched last week.
As the community reels over the vulnerability that was hiding in the code for two years, and that could have been exploited to print more bitcoins than the 21 million is hard-coded to be produced, developers are wondering: Is there a way to prevent such a severe bug from being added to the code again?
Days after the discover, there hasn’t been any formal proposals. But that’s not to say the event hasn’t prompted discussion about how bitcoin works and how similar bugs in the cryptocurrency’s most popular software implementation, Bitcoin Core, can be identified and resolved in the future.
It’s an important question, too – What if a malicious actor had found the exploit first? What if there are other hidden bugs in the code right now?
To this point, pseudonymous bitcoin subreddit moderator ‘Theymos’ urged the community not to forget the bug.
He argued it was “was undeniably a major failure” in a widely-circulated post, adding:
“If all of Bitcoin Core’s policies and practices are kept the same, then it’s inevitable that a similar failure will eventually happen again, and we might not be so lucky with how it turns out that time.”
That said, there’s an argument to be made that Bitcoin Core, powered by an open network of global participants, now has a more robust process for code review than at any time in the technology’s history.
Right now, the implementation has more developers than ever contributing to the open-source codebase. And it is tested quite a bit; by one estimate, tests make up nearly 20 percent of the codebase.
The community’s ‘fault’
Still, developers argue more could be done to make sure the digital money works smoothly.
Theymos thinks one avenue would be to build “more sophisticated” tests tailored at locating severe, but hard to find bugs, like the one last week. “Perhaps all large bitcoin companies should be expected by the community to assign skilled testing specialists to Core,” he continued, adding:
“Currently a lot of companies don’t contribute anything to Core development.”
Bitcoin Core contributor James Hilliard stressed much the same, suggesting that developers can increase the “amount” and “quality” of testing. Though, this might be easier said than done. Bitcoin Core contributor Greg Maxwell agreed in Theymos’s thread that testing is important, but the quality and detail of the tests is important.
The post In Wake of ‘Major Failure,’ Bitcoin Code Review Comes Under Scrutiny appeared first on Statii News.
source http://news.statii.co.uk/in-wake-of-major-failure-bitcoin-code-review-comes-under-scrutiny/
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