Could BitCoin be a decentralized password cracking system?
By Madison Ruppert
Editor of End the Lie
A computer with six high-end graphics cards devoted purely to mining bitcoins. Many users have invested heavily in rigs designed specifically for bitcoin mining.
I am almost positive I will get a few angry e-mails or comments on this article for even questioning BitCoin mining as it has a loyal and somewhat rabid user base. I must preface this with a few statements:
1. I do not think BitCoin should be shut down. I am not like the imbecilic senators who claim BitCoin is only used by drug dealers and needs to be shut down immediately.
2. I do not think that BitCoin is being used to steal your information directly off your computer. I do not think it is a keylogger or spyware as that would be detected pretty quickly by such a large community.
3. I believe that the idea behind BitCoin is phenomenal and should be applauded and refined.
4. I am not stating the following as fact. I am putting this forth as food for thought and I believe it needs to be investigated further before any conclusions can be drawn.
I am not the only one questioning what exactly the “mining” operation is doing. A user on What Really Happened posed similar questions after a BitCoin user alleged that $500,000 worth of the digital currency was stolen from him.
The comment on WRH questions the timing of the massive growth in popularity of BitCoins and BitCoin mining and the recent major security breaches carried out by LulzSecurity.
Could these mining processes be used to crack highly encrypted passwords and encryption keys by linking together computers for unmatched processing power?
This would be distinct from the somewhat aged idea of a botnet which usually involves infecting computers around the world with trojans and other viruses in order to hijack their internet connection and processing power.
The thing that separates the BitCoin mining system from the idea of a botnet is that everyone is willingly participating and giving over their power and computer hardware in exchange for the incentive of digital currency.
A system can get a lot more power when people are willingly setting up multiple high end computers and graphics cards in their home devoted to BitCoin mining opposed to stealthily spreading viruses that hijack a small portion of the computer system without the user’s knowledge or consent.
The BitCoin community will likely be up in arms over claims like these, saying that there is no way that this could be used in that way, it is not a trojan or a virus, etc. This is very true, which is why I mention above it is a very distinct idea from systems used in the past. It also would not likely be used as botnets are in DDoS attacks.
This is why it seems hard for most people to even entertain the thought that this system could be used for less-than-admirable purposes.
I am hypothesizing that this system could be used to crack difficult encryptions just as graphics cards (GPUs) are utilized to crack passwords. Graphics cards can be leveraged to crack passwords around 2500% faster than previous systems.
Is it pure coincidence that the most efficient BitCoin mining is achieved through utilizing a high-end graphics card?
Again, there is no concrete and irrefutable evidence that this system is being used to crack passwords but the question is very real and is one that should not be ignored just because you believe in the idea of an alternative currency.
I emphatically support the idea of alternative debt-free currencies out of the control of the IRS and the private Federal Reserve, but I am skeptical of any system that is leveraging computers around the world to do mysterious tasks.
The fact is that these systems that seem idyllic tend to fall somewhat short of the mark. For instance, the much-lauded Tor anonymity network was hailed as the solution to internet privacy issues with an easy to use, free, and decentralized system.
In reality the Tor network can be used to track BitTorrent users and the Navy had a heavy hand in the development of the software.
The Tor project has also received over $1 million in funding from an “anonymous North American NGO” and has received funding from the Naval Research Laboratory, Google, the National Science Foundation, Human Rights Watch, “an anonymous North American ISP”, and DARPA among others.
To put it lightly, these types of decentralized P2P systems are usually easily exploited for nefarious purposes. What has the entire internet community believing that the programs sucking up their processing power and GPU are being used just to perform useless, nonsensical tasks?
I think that those who value the truth should investigate this further, especially those with a cybersecurity expertise as maybe someone with highly advanced programming knowledge reverse engineer exactly what the miner is doing.
Right now the BitCoin mining network could serve as the world’s most powerful password cracking system, allowing groups like LulzSec to easily hack into Sony systems, Senate.gov, etc. Is it actually serving this purpose or just sucking up power and computer resources for no reason whatsoever?
Madison Ruppert is a Los Angeles-based independent journalist and researcher as well as the founder, owner, administrator and editor of EndtheLie.com. He has no affiliations with any government agencies, political parties, non-governmental organizations, or economic schools. He is available for freelance writing assignments and appearances or interviews in any format. He can be reached by emailing
Why don’t you just read the source code? It’s open source. If you don’t know how, learn before you spout a bunch of speculative bullshit.
you wrote:
“Right now the BitCoin mining network could serve as the world’s most powerful password cracking system…”
to which i answer:
“yes, but not exactly as a bitcoin mining network. think about something like a seti@home distributed work system that paid as much as btc mining to have the btc rigs crunch a different problem? the rate for these rigs could be denominated in their btc/month average yield. that’s what you pay to use them, and the system could skim a little off the top to pay for itself.
this imaginary gpu@home thing may already exist, or is just one thin app away.
rainbowtables.
read about it.
precomputed passwordlists.
All the code for all the engines and software involved is open source. You can go read it and compile and use it yourself. There are zero lines of code about taking custom remote instructions or any capability for a remote machine to steer your GPU into processing other information. All that’s grabbed from the network is data from the last block created BUT it’s mixed with other random and local data on the client end. Basically, there is NO POSSIBLE WAY to have someone tell you precisely what to process. So no password cracking or other nefarious stuff is going on.
Also, the data content sent and overall volume suggest there is no way in hell someone’s making a 1 character larger rainbow table using everyone’s hardware.
These are all mere theories based on vaguely related topics without knowing all the details about this actual system. It’s ridiculously complicated with complex math but once you get a handle on it, you understand how bulletproof and safe it is.
And about the guy who got tons of money stolen, yeah if you don’t secure your wallet file, well just imagine it’s a real wallet with paper money and you get the idea. If somone steals it, they get all the money in it. If you lose it, you’re screwed. It works exactly like paper and it’s your own fault not for securing it if you didn’t. There are already wallet stealing trojans out there.
How many tech geeks out there want to get rich fast at the cost of human life? How many tech geeks out there support anonomous?
I already told the white house this was a national security threat and I wanted a reply, but I have recieved none so in parallel to “CNN” and other media releasing the intel of this in a rush fashion. It’s logical to assume that the target is against anonomous’s growing movement and that the U.S. government is behind the creation of bitcoin.