Bitcoiner speculates ‘massive’ bot spam briefly took down Bitcoin mailing list

One of Bitcoin’s cardinal connection tools utilized to sermon imaginable protocol changes was knocked retired for respective hours starting connected April 2, with 1 moderator speculating it whitethorn person been a targeted onslaught assisted by bots. 

For respective hours crossed April 2 and 3, Bitcoin halfway developers and researchers were incapable to interact connected Google Groups aft Google banned the radical for spam. 

“Bitcoin Development Mailing List has been identified arsenic containing spam, malware, oregon different malicious content,” Google’s informing stated astatine the time.

The Bitcoin Development Mailing List’s informing earlier the prohibition was lifted. Source: Google

Bitcoin Core developer Bryan Bishop told Cointelegraph that the prohibition whitethorn person been triggered by individuals oregon bots mass-reporting the Bitcoin mailing database from aggregate accounts.

It’s a communal maneuver by attackers looking to prohibition oregon censor a community, Bishop said, noting that akin incidents hap connected YouTube, X and TikTok reasonably often.

“So it’s imaginable that this full happening mightiness person been triggered done thing similar that. It mightiness person conscionable been idiosyncratic clicking those links connected a monolithic standard to study it.”

Google Workspace Support’s X relationship confirmed that the contented had been resolved connected April 3 astatine 2:23 americium UTC successful effect to 1 of the Bitcoin mailing list’s different moderators, Ruben Somsen.

Bitcoin advocator and caput of Block Inc, Jack Dorsey, besides called attraction to the ban, urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to analyse the issue.

The Bitcoin mailing database is utilized by Bitcoin halfway developers and researchers to sermon imaginable protocol changes to Bitcoin, which secures much than $1.6 trillion worthy of worth for web users astir the world.

It has go 1 of the main Bitcoin mailing lists since the network’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, shared Bitcoin’s achromatic insubstantial connected the Cryptography Mailing List on Oct. 31, 2008.

Bitcoin mailing database moderators program to enactment connected Google Groups

Despite the incident, Bishop said the Bitcoin mailing database moderators person nary volition of moving distant from communicating via email:

“The world of the concern is that this peculiar mailing database has ever been email, and truthful the contributors that sermon Bitcoin protocol improvement done email, successful bid to supply continuity of service, you person to regenerate it with email.”

The Bitcoin mailing database officially migrated to Google Groups successful February 2024. 

Source: Bryan Bishop

Before that, the mailing database was hosted connected the Linux Foundation, Oregon State University Open Source Lab’s infrastructure and SourceForge.net.

Bishop suggested that a Bitcoin forum shouldn't beryllium constricted to 1 peculiar platform, pointing retired that determination are respective different platforms wherever Bitcoin developments are discussed, including GitHub and the decentralized societal web Nostr.

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