Within the controversial acquisition of 51% of the monoo block chain

Monero, the main cryptocurrency focused on privacy, faces one of the most serious security challenges in its history.

Qubic, a project led by the Iota Sergey Vivancheglo co -founder, says that it now controls more than 51% of the Network hashrate. In block chains insured by work test algorithms, that is the same method used by Bitcoin, that control level can allow an attacker to rewrite the history of transactions, block transactions or carry out double expense attacks.

In a blog post, Quibic described the acquisition as an “experiment” that was a “strategic and sometimes combative application of game theory.”

Developers, miners and security experts are now debating whether the decentralization of the network is as solid as many believed.

What is a 51%attack?

In a chain of work test blocks, the miners compete to add new transaction blocks to the chain. If a group controls more than half of the total computer power, it can overcome all other participants.

This control level opens the door to a variety of capabilities that can undermine confidence in the network. These include chain reorganizations, commonly abbreviated to “Reorg”, which implies replacing the blocks previously confirmed by new ones. It also covers double expenses, which means sending the same token twice,

It could be said that the most shocking part of a 51% attack is to censor transactions, presenting some payments of being confirmed, which is particularly relevant in the case of Monero given its approach to privacy

These attacks are not theoretical. Ethereum Classic was hit several times in 2020, costing millions. Bitcoin Gold faced similar incidents in 2018 and 2020. smaller tokens such as Verge have been attacked and destabilized.

Why Monero is still at risk

Monero uses the Rolilx algorithm to discourage mining using specific integrated circuits of the application (ASICS)encouraging the mining of the CPU in place. This design was intended to maintain the decentralized network. That is why the rapid increase in Qubic is so significant. From less than 2% of Monero’s hashrate in May, it grew to more than 25% at the end of July, and now claims to have crossed the threshold of 51%.

Qubic executes a system of “useful work” that converts the rewards of Monero Mining into USDT, then uses those funds to buy and burn your own Qubic tokens. The mechanism is unusual, combining a mining strategy with a tokens supply sink. And has constantly increased Qubic control over Mono Mono’s power.

Ledger Cto Charles Guillemet said that “it is estimated that” maintaining this attack will cost $ 75 million per day “, before adding that, although it is potentially lucrative,” threatens to destroy confidence in the network almost overnight. Other miners have no incentives to continue. “

Bitmex Research added: “Qubic says that the ultimate goal is to take all monero block rewards, which essentially means complete and sustained selfish mining. It is not clear if they can really achieve it. If this can be achieved, the value of the currency can fall.”

He did it. The XMR of Monero is currently traded at $ 252, 6% less in the last 24 hours to aggravate a 13.5% decrease in the last seven days.

What does this mean for Monero?

In the blog publication, Qubic said that the acquisition was not about breaking monero, but about demonstrating that economic incentives and a coordinated mining strategy can give effective control of smaller protocol on a much larger one.

The experiment, says Qubic, was to evaluate whether mining resources could deviate in a profitable way from an objective network in the economic loop of another protocol.

At its peak, Qubic affirms that his monero mining was almost three times more lucrative than the traditional Monero mining. A restructuring of its rewards system, approved by its community, increased payments to their validators and moved away the miners from other monero pools.

Qubic’s first impulse for the majority control was found with a denyed distributed service denial (DDOS) The attacks that interrupted peripheral services for more than a week but failed to eliminate their central network.

Those DDOS attacks continued on Tuesday, Vivancheglo revealed in X, in what he decreases as “monero maxis returning the favor.”

Qubic states that until now he has stopped completely taking care of consensus, citing concerns about the potential impact on the price of XMR.

Other blockchains are vulnerable to attack?

Bitcoin hashrate is so high that a 51% attack would be prohibitively expensive. But medium -level work test coins are more vulnerable. The cost of obtaining the majority power in Monero, Ethereum Classic or Bitcoin Gold is much lower.

Privacy -centered coins face an additional challenge. Its censorship resistant nature means that if a part controls the network, it undermines the privacy they are designed to protect.



Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *