coincodex.com
Key highlights:
- The Bitcoin.org website was targeted with a DDoS attack, according to the website's operator "Cøbra"
- According to Cøbra, the attackers demanded a ransom to be paid in the form of BTC
- A UK court recently ruled that the website should take down the Bitcoin whitepaper following legal claims from self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright
Bitcoin.org targeted with DDoS attack
Bitcoin.org was recently targeted with a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack, according to the website’s pseudonymous operator Cøbra. In a DDoS attack, a server is flooded with traffic, preventing legitimate users from accessing its content.
https://t.co/OsFgRFRRZb getting hit with an absolutely massive DDoS attack and a ransom demand to send Bitcoin or they'll continue.
— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) July 5, 2021
I don't think I've been this offended in a while. Ungrateful scum.
In a Twitter post, Cøbra stated that the DDoS attack was “absolutely massive” and that the attackers are demanding a ransom to be paid with Bitcoin. According to a report from Decrypt, the attackers demanded a payment of 0.5 BTC, which translates to about $17,000 at current Bitcoin prices.
Bitcoin.org was recently in hot water over Craig Wright's claims of authoring the Bitcoin whitepaper
The website was recently in the midst of some controversy when nChain chief scientist Craig Wright demanded that the website stops hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper, which he claims to have authored. Wright is known in the cryptocurrency community for his claims of being Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the inventor of Bitcoin. Today, he’s one of the leading figures of Bitcoin SV, a cryptocurrency project that claims to be fulfilling the vision outlined by Satoshi Nakamoto in his 2008 whitepaper.
Through the legal firm ONTIER LLP, Wright requested that Cøbra removes the whitepaper from the website, citing copyright infringement. Cøbra didn’t comply with the request and didn’t make an appearance in court. As a result, a UK court ruled a default judgement saying that bitcoin.org must publish a copy of the court’s order and make the Bitcoin whitepaper hosted on its website unavailable for U.K. users.
It’s unclear at this time whether the whitepaper controversy and the recent DDoS attacks are related.
At the moment, the Bitcoin.org website appears to be normally accessible. The Bitcoin whitepaper is still uploaded to the website and is accessible to the public.
In addition to the Bitcoin whitepaper, Bitcoin.org also hosts a variety of resources connected to Bitcoin, for example Bitcoin wallet guides, links to Bitcoin client software and educational material on the various aspects of Bitcoin.