Qubic Claims Control of Over 51% of Monero’s Hashrate
Monero faces a significant security threat as Qubic claims control of over 51% of its hashrate. This level of control can enable rewriting transaction history, blocking transactions, and double-spending.
- Qubic's takeover is described as an "experiment" involving game theory.
- Concerns arise about Monero's decentralization and network security.
- A 51% attack allows capabilities like chain reorganizations and transaction censorship.
- Monero uses the RandomX algorithm to promote CPU mining, which was intended to maintain decentralization.
- Qubic's hashrate increased from under 2% in May to over 51% recently.
- Ledger CTO estimates sustaining this attack could cost $75 million daily but poses risks to network confidence.
- Monero's price (XMR) fell by 6% in 24 hours, totaling a 13.5% decline over seven days.
Qubic asserts its goal is not to break Monero but to demonstrate that smaller protocols can gain effective control over larger ones through economic incentives. The experiment showed that Qubic's mining could be more lucrative than traditional mining methods.
Mid-tier proof-of-work coins, including Monero, are vulnerable to similar attacks, raising concerns for other privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.