Third 51% Attack On Ethereum Classic Carried Out This Month

A third 51% attack was launched on the Ethereum Classic network this month by hackers, as more than 7000 blocks were reorganized in the attack so let’s read more in the Ethereum classic news today.

Hackers targeted Ethereum Classic again in the third 51% attack on the network this month as exchanges such as OKEx considered delisting the coin over the security concerns. The strategies to protect the network from these kinds of attacks could be a little late-coming. For the third time this month, the hackers gained control over the Ethereum Classic blockchain in a 51% attack that reorganized more than 7000 blocks.

Today another large 51% attack occurred on the #ETC network which caused a reorganization of over 7000 blocks which corresponds to approximately 2 days of mining. All lost blocks will be removed from the immature balance and we will check all payouts for dropped txs.

— Bitfly (@etherchain_org) August 29, 2020

The ETC developers are now in a hurry to protect the blockchain from future attacks as these three previous ones raise concerns over the network’s security. OKEx for example has considered delisting the coin to protect itself from more losses. Hackers conducted a 51% attack to take over the blockchain as the blockchains are so called decentralized ledgers because they distribute the work of validating transactions on the global network of computers, known as miners. Each transaction has to be approved over 51% of the miners so in theory, it’s quite hard for a single actor to control more than half of the network since that will require an immense amount of computational power.

If someone managed to control the network, they will be able to bend the blockchain as they wish and can credit their accounts with free cryptocurrency or divert other people’s transactions for their own wallets. The latest attack took place last night as they managed to force their way into the control over the network and managed to reorganize more than 7000 blocks or about two days of mining.

The attack was identified by the Austrian mining company BitFly which identified the first and second attacks where the hackers reorganized more than 8000 blocks that gained more than $9 million in double-spend transactions most of them from OKEx. The ETC cooperative, the non-profit that watched over the Ethereum Classic blockchain said that “it’s aware of today’s attack and are working with others to test and evaluate proposed solutions as quickly as possible.”

Since the hack, Ethereum Classic’s token price dropped by 1.68% but the long-term damage could be even bigger. After the previous two attacks, OKEx said it would consider delisting the coin because the exchange suffered a loss of more than $5.6 million in ETC.