Hacking News
Fee War Over Compromised Bitcoin Address
Automated fee-sweeping bots spent over $4,800 in Bitcoin transaction fees to capture $12.67 from a compromised SegWit address. The miner who collected the fees did better, as the compromised address had a publicly derivable private key from a coinbase transaction. Several bots competed to claim the small deposits, resulting in a net loss of $4,800 for the bots, with most fees going to miners. The incident highlights inefficiencies in bot operations and the risks of using weak keys in Bitcoin transactions.