Bitcoin clients
Skudnov, Rostislav (2012)
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012061312597
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2012061312597
Tiivistelmä
Bitcoin is a new decentralized electronic currency which gained popularity in the last two years. The usage of Bitcoin is facilitated by software commonly called Bitcoin clients. This thesis provides an overview of Bitcoin and cryptography behind it, discusses different types of Bitcoin clients and researches additional features implemented by them. It also analyzes further enhancements that can be made to clients and the Bitcoin protocol.
Bitcoin clients are grouped into types and analyzed from a usability and security perspective. Security is very important for Bitcoin clients as they are used to manipulate money, and poor security leads to direct loss of money. Various threats are evaluated, including malware infestations, theft of files, hostile takeover of servers and hardware failures. Security implications of additional features and future enhancements are also assessed.
Various client types rely on significantly different security assumptions. While some clients are immune to hostile takeover of servers, for other clients this results in theft of money. None of the current clients is able to resist malware effectively. Additional features usually increase either security or usability, though some features improve both.
The current choice of Bitcoin clients and their feature set is much richer than that one year ago. New versions with more features are released very often. One of the future enhancements, multi-signature transactions, significantly increases security as it protects the money even if a client is totally compromised.
Bitcoin clients are grouped into types and analyzed from a usability and security perspective. Security is very important for Bitcoin clients as they are used to manipulate money, and poor security leads to direct loss of money. Various threats are evaluated, including malware infestations, theft of files, hostile takeover of servers and hardware failures. Security implications of additional features and future enhancements are also assessed.
Various client types rely on significantly different security assumptions. While some clients are immune to hostile takeover of servers, for other clients this results in theft of money. None of the current clients is able to resist malware effectively. Additional features usually increase either security or usability, though some features improve both.
The current choice of Bitcoin clients and their feature set is much richer than that one year ago. New versions with more features are released very often. One of the future enhancements, multi-signature transactions, significantly increases security as it protects the money even if a client is totally compromised.