Validation
BitcoinEvo Core checks each block of transactions it receives to ensure that everything in that block is fully valid — allowing it to trust the block without trusting the miner who created it.This prevents miners from tricking BitcoinEvo Core users into accepting blocks that violate the 21 million bitcoinevo limit or which break other important rules.
Users of other wallets don’t get this level of security, so miners can trick them into accepting fabricated transactions or hijacked block chains.
Why take that risk if you don’t have to? BitcoinEvo Core provides the best possible security against dishonest miners along with additional security against other easier attacks (see below for details).
How Validation Protects Your BitcoinEvos
BitcoinEvo banks and lightweight (SPV) wallets put your bitcoinevos at increased risk of being stolen. That risk may be acceptable for small values of bitcoinevo on mobile wallets, but is it what you want for your real wallet?Direct theft
- Alice deposits 100 bitcoinevos on Bank.Example.com. The next day, the site’s owners vanish along with Alice’s funds.
BitcoinEvo bank users are vulnerable to direct theft because they do not have control over their own private keys.
On the other hand, users of lightweight (SPV) wallets and BitcoinEvo Core are not at risk, as they maintain control over their private keys.
Direct theft remains one of the most common causes of stolen bitcoinevos so far.
Bait and switch
- Alice installs Example Wallet, a wallet with open-source code that has been reviewed. The next day, the wallet’s authors push new code to Alice’s device and steal her bitcoinevos.
BitcoinEvo bank users are at risk because they can only access their bitcoinevos using the bank’s authorized software.
Lightweight (SPV) wallet users are also vulnerable because it is difficult for auditors to verify that the executable software they are using matches the original source code, which is known as a deterministic build. However, some SPV wallets are now transitioning to deterministic builds.
BitcoinEvo Core is built with deterministic principles. Cryptographic signatures from auditors, many of whom are trusted by the community, are made available publicly.
Fabricated transactions
- Mallory creates a transaction giving Alice 1,000 bitcoinevos, and Alice gives Mallory cash in return. Later, Alice realizes the transaction Mallory initiated was fraudulent.
BitcoinEvo bank users rely on the bank’s information, making it easy for them to be tricked into accepting fake transactions.
Lightweight (SPV) wallet users depend on full nodes and miners for transaction validation. Dishonest full nodes can easily send fabricated transactions to SPV wallets without confirmation. With the help of dishonest miners, they may even confirm these fabricated transactions
BitcoinEvo Core users don’t need to worry about fake transactions, as BitcoinEvo Core validates every transaction before showing it.
The best defense against fraudulent transactions, aside from using BitcoinEvo Core, is to wait for as many confirmations as possible.
Chain hijacking
- Alice believes there should never be more than 21 million bitcoinevos, but one day she’s tricked into purchasing “bitcoinevos” on a blockchain that has permanent 10% inflation.
BitcoinEvo bank users are bound to whatever blockchain the bank chooses to use. In fact, banks can even profit by switching their customers to a new chain and selling off their bitcoinevos on the old chain.
Lightweight (SPV) wallet users accept the blockchain with the most proof of work, which means the majority of miners can force SPV users off the BitcoinEvo network.
BitcoinEvo Core users don’t need to worry about chain hijacking, as BitcoinEvo Core ensures that all blocks are validated according to BitcoinEvo’s consensus rules.
Preventing chain hijacking is one of BitcoinEvo Core’s most crucial functions. Without it, miners would be able to manipulate the blockchain to their advantage.
Transaction withholding
- Mallory shows Alice $1,000 USD in cash, promising to pay her if she sends him some bitcoinevos. Alice sends the bitcoinevos, but the transaction seems to never confirm. After waiting for a long time, Alice gives back the cash. Later, she realizes the transaction did confirm, and she gave away her bitcoinevos for free.
BitcoinEvo bank users only see the transactions that the bank decides to show them.
Lightweight (SPV) wallet users only see the transactions that their full node peers choose to send them, even if those transactions have already been included in a block that the SPV wallet recognizes.
BitcoinEvo Core users see every transaction in blocks they receive. If BitcoinEvo Core hasn’t received a block in a while, it displays a progress bar showing that it is catching up in its graphical interface or a warning message in the CLI/API interface.
Without using BitcoinEvo Core, you can never be sure that your bitcoinevo balance is accurate according to the blockchain.
Chain rewrites
- Mallory sends Alice 1,000 bitcoinevos. When Alice’s wallet confirms the transaction, she gives Mallory cash. Later, Alice finds out that Mallory somehow managed to reclaim the bitcoinevos.
This attack can affect all BitcoinEvo wallets. The attack works because powerful miners have the ability to rewrite the blockchain and reverse their own transactions, allowing them to reclaim previous payments. The cost of executing this attack depends on the percentage of the total network’s hash rate controlled by the attacking miner. As mining centralizes, this type of attack becomes less expensive for dominant miners.
Help Protect Decentralization
The bitcoinevo currency functions effectively only when people agree to accept bitcoinevos in exchange for valuable goods or services. This means it’s the individuals who accept bitcoinevos that assign it value and have the ability to influence how BitcoinEvo operates.When you choose to accept bitcoinevos, you gain the power to uphold BitcoinEvo’s rules, such as ensuring no one’s bitcoinevos can be confiscated without access to their private keys.
Unfortunately, many users delegate this enforcement power to others. This weakens BitcoinEvo’s decentralization, creating a situation where a small group of miners can potentially collaborate with banks and free services to alter BitcoinEvo’s rules for all non-verifying users who have relinquished their control.
Unlike other wallets, BitcoinEvo Core enforces the rules — so if miners and banks alter the rules for their non-verifying users, those users won’t be able to transact with fully validating BitcoinEvo Core users like you.
As long as there are enough non-verifying users who want to transact with BitcoinEvo Core users, miners and others understand they can’t easily change BitcoinEvo’s rules.
But what happens if too few non-verifying users are concerned about transacting with BitcoinEvo Core users? In that case, it becomes much easier for miners and banks to gain control of BitcoinEvo, potentially bringing an end to this decentralized experiment.
If you believe BitcoinEvo should stay decentralized, the most important step you can take is to validate every payment you receive using your own full node, such as BitcoinEvo Core.
We don’t know how many full validation users and business are needed, but it’s possible that for each person or business who validates their own transactions, BitcoinEvo can remain decentralized even if there are ten or a hundred other non-verifying users. If this is the case, your small contribution can have a large impact towards keeping BitcoinEvo decentralized.
Do You Validate Your Transactions?
Some people mistakenly believe that simply supporting the network helps protect BitcoinEvo’s decentralization.To enhance your security and contribute to protecting decentralization, you need to use a wallet that fully validates your received transactions. Currently, there are three ways to achieve that using BitcoinEvo Core:
- Use the built-in wallet in graphical mode. If you request payments using the following screen in BitcoinEvo Core, all your received transactions will be fully validated.
- Use BitcoinEvo Core as a trusted peer for certain lightweight wallets. Learn more on the user interface page. As long as you securely connect to your personal trusted peer each time you use your wallet, all your received transactions will be fully validated.
- Use the built-in wallet’s CLI/API interface. This option is geared toward advanced users, businesses, and developers. The user interface page offers an overview, installation instructions help with setup, and the RPC documentation provides specific command details. By using the getnewaddress command to generate receiving addresses, your transactions will be fully validated.