Cosbycoin Hack Pops Bitcoin Forum Bubble
by Pixeleen Mistral on 10/09/11 at 7:52 pm
CosbyCoin "zing" takes Bitcointalk.org offline
Bitcoin - a peer-to-peer virtual currency - has reached the point in the media hype cycle were the inevitable backlash takes hold, and the Bitcoin ecosystem becomes a target for high visibility hacks.
The latest incident took place yesterday, when the bitcointalk.org forums were converted into a Cosbycoin ad site, complete with pictures of Bill Cosby, links to a cosbycoin.com web site and a simulated upload of the reader's digital wallet converting their Bitcoins into Cosbycoins. Buttcoin.org has an extensive collection of pictures from the hacked site as does nanimogold.com.
Cosbycoin takes on Bitcoin
There is speculation that a group associated with the SomethingAwful forums may be responsible for Cosbycoins and this hack does seem to fit with the SA goon's style. Whomever launched the hack exerted some effort. Rather than simply injecting Cosbycoin images into the forums, they also set up a cosbycoin.com site and posted to other bitcoin forums.
Cosbycoin.com
This Cosbycoin hack is certainly embarrassing for the forum operators, and raises questions about site security, as did a hack of the MtGox currency exchange last June that lead to a collapse in the value of Bitcoins. Timing of the MtGox incident was particularly unfortunate, coming shortly after a Gawker.com story about Silk Road - an anonymous illicit substance exchange site - which stoked demand for Bitcoins.
simulated upload of Bitcoin wallet
Meanwhile, the mainstream media has begun to take notice of the potential - and limits - of the crypto-currency.
Earlier this week, New York TImes columnist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman pointed out the value of Bitcoins has taken a nosedive recently and the system is vulnerable to "money-hoarding, deflation, and depression" - problems shared with real currencies backed by the gold standard. We can only hope that the know-nothing branch of the republican party takes note. James Surowieki of the MIT Technology Review also wrote critically about the challenges bitcoin faces in surviving the hype cycle.
The hype cycle backlash is one problem, but more a more immediate question for Bitcoin fans is how to address the challenge posed by Cosbycoin parodies appearing on their forums and an insecure ecosystem of currency exchange sites.
Matthew N. Wright of Bittalk.tv reports that there is support for the Cosbycoin hack by members of the Bitcointalk.org forum who are unhappy with poor forum moderation and a pattern of "shuffling important and popular issues under the rug" - exactly the sort of behavior that Second Life players have grown to expect from Linden Lab.
a tip of the old Coffeepotting Gleefurs top hat to Ryokashi who first pointed me at this story - pixeleen
Miss J
Sep 10th, 2011
You know whats better? Pudding pops.
James Freud
Sep 10th, 2011
Would have been funnier if it was Christopher Walken
Alyx Stoklitsky
Sep 11th, 2011
And poof! Bitcoin sheds 75% of its value yet again.
MBE
Sep 11th, 2011
You don’t need to be on the gold standard to run an economy into the ground. Dear Leader and the Democrats and those who believe in the myth of Marxist or Keynesian economics have been running the economy into the ground just fine.
Wasn’t that long ago that Britain, which hasn’t been on the gold standard since WWI, was nearly bankrupted by George Soros.
Pappy Enoch
Sep 11th, 2011
Ol’ Bill knows him a top-notch cornputin’ mersheen when he sees one.
LOL
Sep 11th, 2011
I miss the Bill Cosby griefer cubes… that was some funny shit
lolol
Sep 11th, 2011
No if you do NATO will find an excuse to bomb your country.
http://theintelhub.com/2011/09/07/gaddafi-gold-for-oil-dollar-doom-plans-behind-libya-mission/
aZoTGwFg
Sep 11th, 2011
To discover how to manufacture Bitcoins, visit this [url=http://terapool.com/how-to-mine-bitcoins.php]Bitcoin miners[/url] tutorial.
Ryokashi
Sep 12th, 2011
Why did you not give me credit for showing you this wonderful story?
pixeleen mistral
Sep 12th, 2011
oh sorry! I didn’t know you cared.
I just updated the end for the story to thank you for the tip.
- pix
At0m0 Beerbaum
Sep 13th, 2011
This totally reeks of the GNAA
I approve of this.
They brought us wonders like the harry potter spoilers
killing 4chan once, creating such a butthurt backlash that it still exists to this day (everyone becoming trolls to be cool and defensive!)
fake OSX leak which loaded up GNAA last measure on peoples’ computers, with the rest of the iso filled with text that said “GNAA” over and over again
and various hilarious hacks, such as social engineering the fuck out of freenode, and to this day, continuing to harass its very existence. and troll articles that major publications have published.
cosby spam is one of theirs.
It’s absolutely fucking hilarious.
shane
Oct 20th, 2011
Spelling correction:
nanaimogold.com
Joey1058
Jan 9th, 2012
If I remember correctly, President Nixon signed the bill that took the US off of a gold standard in the 1970′s. It’s one of the reasons the Obama administration is in runaway inflation now.
Another Bitcointalk.org Scam Falls Apart – More than $1M Claimed Stolen | CoinText.com
Nov 7th, 2013
[...] for several days. this included the hilarious CosbyCoin hack where Bitcoins were supposedly converted to a coin operated by comedian Bill Cosby. The site administrator posted that the funds are being saved to defend against possible legal [...]