Bitcoiners got to participate firsthand in the latest CoinWallet stress test on the Bitcoin network Thursday. In a collective exercise, Bitcoiners flooded the network with thousands of transactions as they tried to access 200 free bitcoin (worth about $48,000) from free keys and addresses being released into the system by CoinWallet.
In what one commentator could describe only as “[expletive] crazy”, Bitcoiners helped CoinWallet test the bitcoin network, and although there are still 84,000 transactions awaiting confirmation at the time of publishing, the network seems to be in good shape.
The U.K.-based exchange saved itself a lot of work by simply counting on human nature to respond in a predictable fashion and go after the free bitcoin.
And in the end, forum comments show that the system was mostly unaffected and people were still able to trade bitcoin. As one commenter noted: “Even though under DDoS attack, the Bitcoin network still worked better than the Commonwealth Bank today!”
This comes as the Bitcoin community is coming closer to some resolution after a vigorous and open discussion and will be meeting in Montreal this weekend in aScalability Conference to try and resolve the ongoing debate about Bitcoin’s blocksize.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin businesses seem to be adjusting fine, although some have had to increase their fees to get transactions processed.
Mycelium’s Dmitry Murashchik told Bitcoin Magazine that he didn’t see much of an effect on their systems.
“I think stress tests are fine. How else will you find problems?” he said.
Jack C. Liu from OKCoin told Bitcoin Magazine they didn’t see much of an impact, and, in any case, they use a dynamic fee structure to handle any surges.
CoinWallet has made its point, and the network has survived, and there can be no doubt about the enduring popularity and enthusiasm for owning bitcoin.