🐞 August 6-15, 2010: The Overflow Bug
On August 6, 2010, developer Jeff Garzik and others discovered a critical integer overflow vulnerability in Bitcoin. The bug could allow someone to create essentially unlimited bitcoin out of thin air. Nine days later, on August 15, an attacker exploited it, creating over 184 billion #BTC in a single transaction. Satoshi Nakamoto and the early developers coordinated an emergency fix and soft-forked the network back to a valid state within hours. It remains the only major inflation bug ever exploited on Bitcoin.
That week became one of the earliest demonstrations of Bitcoin’s ability to respond to an existential threat while remaining open source.
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