Bitcoin Gold Suffers 51% Attack by Hacker
Malicious hackers compromised the safety of Bitcoin Gold [BTG]
Image source: bitcoingold.org
Bitcoin Gold, a spinoff from the main Bitcoin cryptocurrency, suffered a 51% attack that is carried out by someone with exceptional computational power to falsify the coin’s ledger. Obtaining more than 51% of the mining power of a coin gives the hacker the right to alter the ledger, where double spending could be possible. According to Fortune - Jeff John Roberts, at least $18 million was swindled from online exchanges.
The attack was first alerted on 18 May by Edward Iskra, the BTG Communications Director. There has been no hacks since 19 May, however if the hacker continues to control 51 percent if the blockchain, buyers of BTG on exchanges remain at risk. Exchanges have to set stricter rules for large transactions before they could proceed. (source: Bitcoinist - Osato Avan-Nomayo).
Similar attacks have targeted Verge, Monacoin and Electroneum, according to Autonomous Research LLC. To gain power over a coin with a market cap of $500 million, an attacker may need to spend as little as $778 an hour, according to Autonomous.
Source: Bloomberg - Olga Kharif
Image source: pixabay - TheDigitalArtist
Smaller coins are vulnerable to these 51% attacks as controlling the majority of their blockchain is simpler to hack. Large companies such as Bitmain have also propelled centralization in coin mining, making coins more susceptible to attacks. An article on CCN - Conor Maloney reports how easily Bytecoin, Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Private could be attacked by a huge mining farm for example, Nicehash. However it also showed us how challenging it would be to attack bigger coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.
No matter what the risk is for buying cryptocurrencies on exchanges, investors holding their coins are safe from these attacks. Hackers mainly target exchanges and buyers of coins in large transactions, making them vulnerable to losing their coins. As looking into cryptocurrencies as an investment, always look for couns with an active community of users and developers. Well established coins are also constantly updating and maintaining their code to prevent such malicious attacks.
I had never heard of that 51%-control threshold, but it makes perfect sense.
That is pretty frightening stuff.
Thanks for the post.
Yea.. It has always been sort of a theory never been happening in real due to its difficulty. But the possibility for the attack is there and we have to be more aware when trading on exchanges