It appears as if hackers are deliberately targeting bitcoin platforms all of a sudden, as both LocalBitcoins and Paxful were inaccessible due to potential DDoS attacks. Although these issues did not take long to sort themselves out, it raises the question as to why would be behind such attacks, and what they hope to gain from it.
Paxful and LocalBitcoins Are Back
Whenever a website or online platform goes down, there are lots of potential reasons for such an occurrence. A DDoS attack is not the most common activity when sites go offline for a little bit, but it is always a possibility. Since both Paxful and LocalBitcoins went offline at around the same time, it is possible someone – or a group – tried to make both platforms inaccessible.
At the same time, this begs the question as to what parties have to gain from DDoSing these platforms. Are they threatening owners of both platforms to pay an amount of money so the attacks will relent, or is there something far more malicious going on behind the scenes?
So far, none of the questions have been answered, albeit it looks like the potential DDoS attacks have relented for the time being. LocalBitcoins is a marketplace looking to connect buyers and sellers of Bitcoin and is available in over 220 countries around the world.
Paxful, on the other hand, is a Bitcoin exchange platform, which has always been a favourable target for hackers and Internet criminals As far as we know it, the potential DDoS attack was not aimed at stealing consumer funds, as no losses have been reported at the time of publication.
In the end, DDoS attacks are very annoying to deal with, yet their purpose is not always clear to most people. Some people use this tool to make a clear statement, such as what Anonymous is doing by going after the central banks of the world. But in the Bitcoin world, it hardly seems to make sense for the most part.
Source: Reddit
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