Monero Community Explores Advanced Measures to Fortify Network Against 51% Attacks Translation: Monero Community Explores Advanced Measures to Fortify Network Against 51% Attacks

Members of the Monero community are exploring the potential to upgrade the consensus algorithm of Proof-of-Work. The aim is to safeguard the network from 51% attacks, following the claims by the Qubic project of gaining control over a significant portion of the hashrate.

Participants have suggested several alternatives, including the localization of mining hardware, transitioning to merged mining for mining XMR alongside other cryptocurrencies, and implementing the ChainLocks solution from the Dash project.

The latter utilizes randomly selected masternodes to confirm the first valid block. ChainLocks secures the blockchain and prevents chain reorganization, even if an attacker possesses greater computational power.

Joel Valenzuela, a member of the core team of the DAO Dash, described Qubic’s campaign as «an experiment exploiting the economic weaknesses of security models.» He stated that any ASIC-resistant network is at risk.

Most users assert that Qubic did not gain control over the hashrate, but merely executed a limited reorganization of the blocks.

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

In light of these developments, the Kraken exchange temporarily suspended XMR deposits. The platform later resumed them but increased the required number of confirmations to 720. The exchange cited «uncertainty regarding the security of Monero» as the reason.

Researchers from the RIAT institute labeled the incident as «a staged media stunt to promote their own project.»

As a reminder, in July, the Qubic project, led by IOTA co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo, announced its plans to capture 51% of Monero’s hashrate between August 2 and 31.

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