Topic: BTG: Bitcoin Gold suffers another 51% attack (Read 116 times)
I posted this around December of last year, How many confirmations are equivalent* to 6 Bitcoin confirmations?. Everyone should how the "immutability of the blockchain" is and how it is not prone to this kind of 51% attacks. I advise everyone to read that thread. There are a lot of interesting knowledge share in there, and this attacks have been touch base in the discussions.
Happenings like this is one of the main reason why the bitcoin blockchain remains the most popular even if the network is slow. When we talk about funds, the security should be the main priority.
Very well said, that's why bitcoin is still the best because the network is very secure and we haven't seen any attempts for a 51% attacks and I don't think that we will see in the future as well. 6 confirmations might be slow for others, but you will be sure that it will get through without any hiccups or problems. Third attempts for BTG? It really sad to hear, but when will they learn?
At the very least the bitcoin gold team was able to stop the attempted 51% attack early on and didn't lose funds unlike what happened in May 2018 and January 2020.
Happenings like this is one of the main reason why the bitcoin blockchain remains the most popular even if the network is slow. When we talk about funds, the security should be the main priority.
Happenings like this is one of the main reason why the bitcoin blockchain remains the most popular even if the network is slow. When we talk about funds, the security should be the main priority.
Take notice for Bitcoin Gold holders investors and traders and specially miners. You need to upgrade to the latest version if you haven't done so as there are a attack for the third time. This is critical so I suggest all parties concern should be aware of this critical issues.
There is an emergency update:
Emergency update 0.17.2
https://bitcoingold.org/emergency-update-0-17-2/
There is an emergency update:
Emergency update 0.17.2
Quote
CRITICAL MESSAGE FROM BTG TEAM TO ALL POOLS, EXCHANGES, WALLETS, SERVICES, AND COMMUNITY RUNNING NODES
Please immediately upgrade your BTG Core full nodes to version 0.17.2, published July 2, 2020.
UPDATE: if you did not upgrade prior to July 10 at 14:00 UTC, you will also want to perform the command:
invalidateblock 00000000635620f22ba8694aea532d51619f8cd060f4e42e85db3cb3a5d1c29c
HOW TO UPGRADE:
1. You can use the pre-compiled binaries on Github, https://github.com/BTCGPU/BTCGPU/releases/tag/v0.17.2, or use the DOWNLOADS link you see above. Simply shut down your node, install the latest version, and start back up.
2. Manually upgrade from the latest code on the BTCGPU Github v0.17.2 tag (on 0.17 / master branch); full release notes here. If you are still at v0.15.2 and haven’t upgraded to 0.17, we have a backport version v0.15.3 tag (on 0.15 branch) including the same changes so you can keep your current configuration files.
(Note: there were potentially breaking changes in the configuration file between v0.15 and v0.17*)
You can run this command in the console or bgold-cli to ensure you are immediately on the honest chain:
invalidateblock 00000000635620f22ba8694aea532d51619f8cd060f4e42e85db3cb3a5d1c29c
Note: a strong majority of the honest mining pools have already upgraded their code a week ago, and continue to mine on the honest chain.
The BTG Explorer at https://explorer.bitcoingold.org/ is on the honest chain. You can compare your most recent blockhash with the explorer to ensure you are on the honest chain.
To ask your node for the latest blockhash, give it the command:
getbestblockhash
And compare it to the latest block on the BTG Explorer at https://explorer.bitcoingold.org/
====== EMERGENCY INFORMATION ======
We have just seen an extremely long attack chain of over 1300 blocks on July 10, 2020, against the BTG network which have been mined since July 1, 2020.
We detected this illicit activity early on and sent alerts to pools and exchanges to protect them; many closed their wallets over a week ago. We also supplied them with BTG version 0.17.2, which included a checkpoint at block 640650, hash 000000059ec8884fa4fbbdbe46c09cfb4ecba281dfa2351a05084e817c1200ae from July 2 at 2am UTC, mined by MiningPoolHub, a known honest block.
With this block checkpointed, the attacker’s chain could not take over, but this information was not public, and the attacker continued to mine. The attacker mined their secret chain for nearly 10 days, renting power from NiceHash to do so. Today, on July 10, the attacker released over 1300 blocks.
Because those attacking blocks are anchored at a block mined on July 1st (before the checkpoint), the honest pools and exchanges who are running the updated code automatically rejected the attacker’s chain.
It’s time for everyone else to upgrade their nodes to make sure they stay on the honest chain and to push your node onto the honest chain by using the simple command:
invalidateblock 00000000635620f22ba8694aea532d51619f8cd060f4e42e85db3cb3a5d1c29c
If you use the Bitcoin Gold GUI, you can enter this command in the Debug Console. If you use the command line daemon, simply give this command to bgold-cli:
bgold-cli invalidateblock 00000000635620f22ba8694aea532d51619f8cd060f4e42e85db3cb3a5d1c29c
This tells your node that the attacker’s version of the block at height 640650 invalid, and your node will immediately switch back to the honest version of the chain (perhaps after a short recalculation delay.)
The majority of honest pool hashpower continues to mine on the honest chain.
Please immediately upgrade your BTG Core full nodes to version 0.17.2, published July 2, 2020.
UPDATE: if you did not upgrade prior to July 10 at 14:00 UTC, you will also want to perform the command:
invalidateblock 00000000635620f22ba8694aea532d51619f8cd060f4e42e85db3cb3a5d1c29c
HOW TO UPGRADE:
1. You can use the pre-compiled binaries on Github, https://github.com/BTCGPU/BTCGPU/releases/tag/v0.17.2, or use the DOWNLOADS link you see above. Simply shut down your node, install the latest version, and start back up.
2. Manually upgrade from the latest code on the BTCGPU Github v0.17.2 tag (on 0.17 / master branch); full release notes here. If you are still at v0.15.2 and haven’t upgraded to 0.17, we have a backport version v0.15.3 tag (on 0.15 branch) including the same changes so you can keep your current configuration files.
(Note: there were potentially breaking changes in the configuration file between v0.15 and v0.17*)
You can run this command in the console or bgold-cli to ensure you are immediately on the honest chain:
invalidateblock 00000000635620f22ba8694aea532d51619f8cd060f4e42e85db3cb3a5d1c29c
Note: a strong majority of the honest mining pools have already upgraded their code a week ago, and continue to mine on the honest chain.
The BTG Explorer at https://explorer.bitcoingold.org/ is on the honest chain. You can compare your most recent blockhash with the explorer to ensure you are on the honest chain.
To ask your node for the latest blockhash, give it the command:
getbestblockhash
And compare it to the latest block on the BTG Explorer at https://explorer.bitcoingold.org/
====== EMERGENCY INFORMATION ======
We have just seen an extremely long attack chain of over 1300 blocks on July 10, 2020, against the BTG network which have been mined since July 1, 2020.
We detected this illicit activity early on and sent alerts to pools and exchanges to protect them; many closed their wallets over a week ago. We also supplied them with BTG version 0.17.2, which included a checkpoint at block 640650, hash 000000059ec8884fa4fbbdbe46c09cfb4ecba281dfa2351a05084e817c1200ae from July 2 at 2am UTC, mined by MiningPoolHub, a known honest block.
With this block checkpointed, the attacker’s chain could not take over, but this information was not public, and the attacker continued to mine. The attacker mined their secret chain for nearly 10 days, renting power from NiceHash to do so. Today, on July 10, the attacker released over 1300 blocks.
Because those attacking blocks are anchored at a block mined on July 1st (before the checkpoint), the honest pools and exchanges who are running the updated code automatically rejected the attacker’s chain.
It’s time for everyone else to upgrade their nodes to make sure they stay on the honest chain and to push your node onto the honest chain by using the simple command:
invalidateblock 00000000635620f22ba8694aea532d51619f8cd060f4e42e85db3cb3a5d1c29c
If you use the Bitcoin Gold GUI, you can enter this command in the Debug Console. If you use the command line daemon, simply give this command to bgold-cli:
bgold-cli invalidateblock 00000000635620f22ba8694aea532d51619f8cd060f4e42e85db3cb3a5d1c29c
This tells your node that the attacker’s version of the block at height 640650 invalid, and your node will immediately switch back to the honest version of the chain (perhaps after a short recalculation delay.)
The majority of honest pool hashpower continues to mine on the honest chain.
https://bitcoingold.org/emergency-update-0-17-2/
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