Bitcoin site down again after DDoS just days after losing Craig Wright suit

Bitcoin site and education portal Bitcoin.org is still rocked by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks just days after a judge ordered its owner to cough up nearly $50,000 over a white paper copyright dispute.

The site’s mysterious owner ‘Cøbra’ disclosed the cyberattacks in a Twitter post on Monday, calling those responsible, quote “ungrateful scum.”

Cøbra said the attackers sent a Bitcoin ransom demand “or they’ll continue.”

https://t.co/OsFgRFRRZb getting hit with an absolutely massive DDoS attack and a ransom demand to send Bitcoin or they'll continue.

I don't think I've been this offended in a while. Ungrateful scum.

— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) July 5, 2021

[Read more: Square’s COPA asks UK court to rule Craig Wright didn’t create Bitcoin]

Craig Wright wins copyright by default (in the UK)

Since January, Cøbra has battled self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator and courtroom frequenter Craig Wright over who owns (and is therefore allowed) to publish crypto’s original white paper.

The case reached its conclusion last week when London’s High Court ruled (after Cøbra offered no defense to maintain their pseudonymity) the site could no longer serve Bitcoin’s white paper to the UK.

At the time, Cøbra tweeted they’d gladly pay Wright’s $48,400 legal fee, provided they could do so in Bitcoin to the address tied to block #9 — mined by Bitcoin mastermind Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.

Happy to pay Craig his costs for the Bitcoin whitepaper case.

How does a BTC payment to the address associated with block #9 sound? https://t.co/dxMWIrnkGx

— Cøbra (@CobraBitcoin) June 28, 2021

And while the amount the DDoS-ers demanded is small relative to recent ransomware incidents — 0.5 BTC ($17,000) according to Decrypt — it’s no doubt a big deal to a community-funded venture like Bitcoin.org.

There’s something about Bitcoin.org

DDoS attacks overwhelm a target site with fake traffic. In the crypto space, DDoS campaigns are usually waged on bigger companies like crypto exchanges Binance and Bitfinex.

However, there must be something about Bitcoin.org that attracts hackers — this is its second DDoS incident since December.

Of course, whether Cøbra gives into the demands remains to be seen. In a rather pessimistic Monday tweet, they didn’t sound too hopeful.

[Read more: Finney ‘most likely’ Bitcoin’s Nakamoto, say researchers]

“[…] Back in the day you could put up a reasonable fight against most DDoS attacks. Now they just down you at will. There is no ‘fight’ anymore, you go down and stay down until they leave you alone.”

Protos has reached out to Cøbra for comment. At press time, their Bitcoin site was unavailable.