A bitcoin-replica launched with an aim to discourage miners from forming pools and gain a monopoly over its network has been compromised.
Mark Nesbitt, a security expert, revealed that the blockchain of Vertcoin, a peer-to-peer PoW cryptocurrency, is under a 51% attack. The Coinbase engineer found that some anonymous cybercriminals rented a large amount of ASIC hash rate to attack the four-year-old cryptocurrency network. They eventually got hold of more than 50% of the mining hash rate which allowed them to own and govern the Vertcoin public chain literally.
The integrity of a PoW cryptocurrency depends on the distributed nature of its network. It is considered decentralized when no miner or mining pool possesses more than 50% of the network hash rate. If a mining entity gains control of the majority of the hash power, then it can could create separate blocks from any arbitrary previous block, creating two versions of the same blockchain. And if the alternative blockchain – controlled by a single entity – starts producing more blocks than the rest of the network, then it could lead to a situation termed as chain reorganization.
https://www.ccn.com/vertcoin-hit-by-51-attack-allegedly-lost-100000-in-double-spending/
How terrible that blockchain is lol. If these guys are still having 51% hashrate and vertcoin has turned into the centralized blockchain platform. i'm interesting to watch more about this case. without asic resistant and it will be so difficult to solving that problemMark Nesbitt, a security expert, revealed that the blockchain of Vertcoin, a peer-to-peer PoW cryptocurrency, is under a 51% attack. The Coinbase engineer found that some anonymous cybercriminals rented a large amount of ASIC hash rate to attack the four-year-old cryptocurrency network. They eventually got hold of more than 50% of the mining hash rate which allowed them to own and govern the Vertcoin public chain literally.
The integrity of a PoW cryptocurrency depends on the distributed nature of its network. It is considered decentralized when no miner or mining pool possesses more than 50% of the network hash rate. If a mining entity gains control of the majority of the hash power, then it can could create separate blocks from any arbitrary previous block, creating two versions of the same blockchain. And if the alternative blockchain – controlled by a single entity – starts producing more blocks than the rest of the network, then it could lead to a situation termed as chain reorganization.
https://www.ccn.com/vertcoin-hit-by-51-attack-allegedly-lost-100000-in-double-spending/
Even if they are implementing asic resistance right now without doing anything for future, in a couple months of time the asic will figure out how to breach their algorithm and will start mining it again.
the only solution for this is implementing asic resistance and make an upgrade in their algorithm every 6 months.
in this case, asic will be out of position and this kind of attack will be avoided.
