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RE: Visualizing The Bitcoin Blockchain And Catching Spammers
Are the spammers intentionally trying to clog the blockchain? That is the purpose?
Are the spammers intentionally trying to clog the blockchain? That is the purpose?
Yes and No.
Since the invention of bots and automation scripts it is inevitable than ANY application and/or network will get spammed. 99,99% users may cooperate, but it takes 1 single person who programs a script that will execute 1000 requests/second automated and put the server under stress. It is unavoidable.
Therefore the developers have the challenge of developing systems that are robust against this. For example use servers with a robust CPUs and large RAM, use "Cloudflare" - A distributed mechanism that guarantees online availability even under severe stress and so on and so on.
Why spam? Usually some sort of financial gain. Execute an Ad click 1000 times x $0.001 = $1 Profit. Rinse and repeat.
On the blockchain: A few years back, when bitcoin blocks were empty and the fee was almost zero, somebody made the gambling game Satoshi Dice. Because the app became so popular, and transactions were free - the network was soon overwhelmed with transactions -> clogged.
Last month, Ethereum fans made a game called Cryptokitties. It became super popular and due to so many people breeding these cats, they clogged the Ethereum network.
Are these 2 games spam?
I argue - no. They are totally valid real life applications of the blockchain, and their effect points out limitations that our dear developers should improve upon.
Regarding this article. It's likely to be intentional and almost certainly an automated script. The goal? I cannot really tell, there are always assholes out there. On any given network there are hundreds of spam attacks every single day.