Several solutions have been proposed to bolster Monero’s proof-of-work consensus mechanism to prevent 51% attacks on the network.
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The Monero community is exploring a potential overhaul of its proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to make the network resistant to 51% attacks.
Community members suggested several , including localizing mining hardware, switching to a merge mining algorithm, allowing XMR to be mined alongside Bitcoin () or other major cryptocurrencies, and Dash’s ChainLocks solution.
Dash’s ChainLocks uses “randomly selected masternodes” to reach a quorum on the first valid block broadcast by the network, locking the blockchain ledger into place and appending the chain only with blocks verified through the ChainLock system. This would function on top of the existing PoW Consensus.
ChainLocks prevents and block reorganizations, even if proposed blocks come from selfish or malicious miners with a higher accumulated proof-of-work than the ChainLocks verified chain, Joel Valenzuela, Dash DAO core member, told Cointelegraph. He also warned:
“The Qubic attack is a fascinating experiment that essentially exploits weaknesses in mined security models, particularly in their economics, and particularly for chains that don’t have application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Any ASIC-resistant chain should be worried.
Even those with ASICs need to have their economic priorities in place, or suffer attacks,” Valenzuela continued. Qubic, an AI-focused blockchain and mining pool, that it in August, prompting fears that the community may target other proof-of-work blockchains.
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The Qubic mining pool currently controls 2.18 gigahashes per second (GH/s), making it the miner with the most hashing power on the Monero network, according to .
Supportxmr is the second-largest mining pool by hashing power, commanding 1.18 GH/s of computing power at the time of this writing.
Monero’s community , with a portion of Monero users claiming that Qubic never achieved majority control over the network’s hashing power and only managed a limited block reorganization, not a majority takeover of the network.
Despite the denials, Kraken, a major crypto exchange, announced it was , and, in a subsequent , Kraken re-enabled deposits, but stipulated that 720 confirmations are required before crediting accounts with XMR.
“Given the current uncertainty around the security of the Monero network due to significant consolidation of hash rate under a single entity, Kraken may halt deposits at any time and delay crediting at its discretion,” the exchange wrote in an update on Monday.
On Sunday, the Qubic community to make Dogecoin () its next mining target, earning over 300 votes from community members — more than all the other options combined.
Following the vote, Sergey Ivancheglo, the founder of the Qubic network, that DOGE mining “requires months of development,” and the mining pool is currently focused on mining XMR.
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