Bitcoin creator Dr. Craig S. Wright has refuted several of the paper's claims, particularly the one hinting that any of the early participants could have "51% attacked" the network and double-spent coins.
In this article, Author Dr. Craig Wright explains what a 51% attack is, how it relates to existing systems, and how it is being maligned by some people in the industry seeking to promote a system different from Bitcoin in many ways.
This week, Kurt Wuckert Jr. returns to CoinGeek Weekly Livestream with an Ask Me Anything episode, featuring a timely discussion on the malicious attack on the BSV network in July.
Two main themes emerge in the final episode in the ten-video “Theory of Bitcoin: The Bitcoin Whitepaper”: it’s impractical to try to cheat the system, and Bitcoin is first and foremost an economic system.
Unlike BSV supporters who champion the utility of BSV, BTC supporters tend to use some variant of the “money-printing” thesis as a justification for the value of the extremely limited version of Bitcoin which they prefer.
The Bitcoin SV network has already put in place safeguards to its protocols, which in all practical terms, makes attacks on the system illogical.
The Ethereum Classic blockchain has implemented a defense mechanism, "MESS," to reduce the chance of a 51% attack taking place on the network
After the ETC 51% attacks and block reorgs, there has been a substantial amount of misunderstanding around how NiceHash actually works.
In its latest blog post, ETC Labs blames NiceHash for the 51% attacks taking place on the Ethereum network.
The Ethereum Classic (ETC) network suffered yet another 51% attack on August 29, resulting in a 7,000 block re-org.
The problem
Ethereum Classic was 51% attacked twice in one week because it is not very expensive to execute a 51% attack on the network. According to crypto51, a website with statistics regarding how expensive it is to 51% attack a network, it only costs $5,288 to 51% attack the ETC network for one hour. Since it is possible to rent large amounts of hash from hash provider NiceHash, it does not take much to exploit the Ethereum Classic network.
In their report, ETC labs even says “Ethereum Classic is not only vulnerable to 51% attacks, but these attacks are possible to execute due to the available hash rate that can be rented on various platforms.”
The solution
ETC Labs has laid out both a short term and long term plan to protect the Ethereum Classic network from future 51% attacks. In the short term, ETC Labs says the network will adopt a “defensive mining strategy” via a “cooperation with miners and mining pools to maintain a more consistent hash rate and to increase hash rate when needed.”
In addition, ETC labs says the ETC network will enhance network monitoring to identify unusual increases in hash and will have digital currency exchanges increase the confirmation time for ETC transactions.
In the next three to six months, ETC Labs says the ETC network may “change the proof-of-work mining algorithm. The two alternatives under consideration are Keccak-256 or RandomX. These could be implemented through a hard fork in approximately 6 months, provided that testing is completed successfully.”
Regardless, the ETC network needs a solution and it needs a solution fast. Since January 1, the total hash of the ETC network has dropped by more than 70%, and each day the ETC network goes without implementing a solution or reducing its 51% attack vector, the less attractive the ETC network looks to the individuals who could supply the hash that keeps the network stable.
" title="Ethereum Classic rolls out 51% attack protection plan" />ETC Labs has laid out both a short term and long term plan to protect the Ethereum Classic network from future 51% attacks.
OKEx has released a report explaining how the Ethereum Classic 51% attacker stole $5.6 million from the exchange on August 1.
