Monero Community Explores New Defenses Against 51% Attacks

Monero considers upgrading its consensus algorithm to defend against 51% attacks after Qubic's hashrate control claim.

Members of the Monero community are considering upgrading the Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm. The aim is to protect the network from a 51% attack after the Qubic project claimed control over a significant portion of the hashrate.

Participants have proposed several options. These include localizing equipment, transitioning to merged mining for XMR alongside other cryptocurrencies, and implementing the ChainLocks solution from the Dash project.

The latter uses randomly selected masternodes to confirm the first valid block. ChainLocks locks the ledger and prevents chain reorganization, even if an attacker has more computing power.

Joel Valenzuela, a member of the core Dash DAO team, described the Qubic campaign as an “experiment exploiting economic weaknesses in security models.” According to him, any ASIC-resistant network is at risk.

Community Opinion 

Most users assert that Qubic did not gain control over the hashrate but merely conducted a limited block reorganization. 

According to MiningPoolStats, the pool controls 2.39 GH/s, making it the largest in the Monero network.

Amid these events, the Kraken exchange temporarily suspended XMR deposits. The platform later resumed them but increased the required number of confirmations to 720. The exchange explained this as “uncertainty regarding Monero’s security.”

Researchers from the RIAT institute called the incident a “staged media stunt to promote their own project.”

Alex Petrov, co-founder and CIO of Hyperfusion, also suggested to ForkLog that the attack was more of a PR campaign than a real threat.

Back in July, Qubic, led by IOTA co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo, announced plans to capture 51% of Monero’s hashrate from August 2 to 31.

In August, the project community selected Dogecoin for the next 51% attack.