Grin network hit by 51% attack

An unknown mining company gained control of 57% of the Grin network’s hashrate, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency. The incident was reported by the 2Miners pool.

Grin Network Is Under the 51% Attack!

Payouts are stopped. Please mine at your own risk only because the new blocks could be rejected.@grincouncil @grin_hub @Hotbit_news @Poloniex @kucoincom @gateio_info @CoinBene pic.twitter.com/6seDSRe8Qw

— 2Miners (@pool2miners) November 8, 2020

The network reorganized at block #949,474. The attacker forked it on November 7 at 22:38 UTC.

Grin hash power distribution. Source: 2Miners.

Soon after, he carried out several more attacks in an attempt to perform double-spends on exchanges.

“The success of the attack is not determined,” wrote a member of the Grin community in the official chat.

Grin remains vulnerable to repeat attacks, as unknown mining pools still account for more than half of the network’s hashrate.

“More than 50% of the network’s hashrate is currently outside known pools. Given these circumstances, it is prudent to wait for additional transaction confirmations before finalising payments,” the Grin website says.

The developers of the cryptocurrency notified exchanges of the situation and are cooperating with them to prevent hackers from spending the coins obtained as a result of the fork.

According to Crypto51, the estimated cost of carrying out a 51% attack on Grin at the time of writing stands at about $75 cocтaвляет $75.

Veteran of the Bitcoin industry Emin Gün Sirer believes that it is the network’s own consensus protocol that made Grin vulnerable to attacks of this kind.

The lesson here, in my view, is this: projects should focus on areas where they innovate, and stick to best-of-breed solutions in areas where they don’t. Just like you don’t roll your own crypto, don’t roll your own hash function and consensus proto.

— Emin Gün Sirer (@el33th4xor) November 8, 2020

«Проекты должны быть сосредоточены на тех областях, в которых они внедряют инновации, и использовать лучшие из имеющихся решений в областях, в которых не работают. Точно так же, как вы не запускаете свою собственную криптовалюту, не запускайте собственную хеш-функцию и консенсусный протокол», – написал он.

Earlier, in August Ethereum Classic confirmed the split of the blockchain into two chains at block #10,904,146. The depth of the reorganization was 3,693 blocks, and the damage was estimated at 807,260 ETC.

Five days later the second 51% attack occurred, and followed by the third. Following this, the developers prepared a list of measures to protect the network.

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