Bitcoin Glitch Costs Miners Thousands

This weekend, bitcoin miners suffered a setback after it was

that those running some software clients which were out of date were creating invalid blocks, or transaction records. The glitch gave miners the impression that they had earned bitcoins for adding to blockchain, when in actuality, the invalid blocks weren't accepted.

Bitcoin.org issued a

regarding the invalid blocks over the weekend. The notice said that an initial invalid block has been built upon by other miners, who don't fully validate their blocks. The practice, called Simple Payment Verification (SPV) mining, has caused several large mining operations to loose more than $50,000 dollars in mining income so far due to the glitch. To combat the problem, Bitcoin.org recommended that all miners update to the latest software to ensure that the invalid blocks are detected. The site also encouraged those using web-based wallets to make sure they are using the most up-to-date version as well.

SPV mining means that the verification of new blocks relies on a connection to a trusted node. However, since the software was unable to detect invalid blocks, it allowed miners to continue building strings of blocks on top of an invalid one, rendering all of them worthless.

While the effects of this glitch appear to be concentrated on mining firms, some worry that it could refuel worries about bitcoin's safety and security. The cryptocurrency already has a reputation for being unreliable and many fear that this incident will contribute to that stigma.