The Monero community is considering a significant revision of its proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to enhance the network’s defense against 51% attacks.
Members of the community have proposed various ideas, such as localizing mining hardware, transitioning to a merge mining algorithm, permitting XMR to be mined alongside Bitcoin (BTC) or other prominent cryptocurrencies, and implementing Dash’s ChainLocks solution.
Dash’s ChainLocks leverages “randomly selected masternodes” to achieve consensus on the first valid block shared by the network, effectively securing the blockchain ledger and appending to the chain solely with blocks authorized through the ChainLock system. This would operate in conjunction with the existing PoW Consensus.
ChainLocks helps prevent 51% network attacks and block reorganizations, even if the proposed blocks emerge from selfish or malicious miners boasting a higher total proof-of-work than the ChainLocks certified chain, Joel Valenzuela, a core member of Dash DAO, informed Cointelegraph. He also cautioned:
“The Qubic attack is a compelling experiment that essentially taps into vulnerabilities within mined security models, particularly in their economics, especially for chains lacking application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Any ASIC-resistant chain should be concerned.
Even those utilizing ASICs must maintain their economic priorities to avoid attacks,” Valenzuela added. Qubic, an AI-driven blockchain and mining pool, reported gaining 51% control over Monero in August, raising alarms that the community might pursue other proof-of-work blockchains.
Related: Qubic community, Monero’s 51% attacker, votes to target Dogecoin next
Qubic becomes largest Monero mining pool, community votes to target DOGE next
Currently, the Qubic mining pool commands 2.18 gigahashes per second (GH/s), positioning it as the most powerful miner on the Monero network, as reported by MiningPoolStats.
Supportxmr is recognized as the second-largest mining pool by hashing power, holding 1.18 GH/s of computational capability at the time of this writing.
The Monero community remains split on the attack, with some users asserting that Qubic never achieved majority control over the network’s hashing power and only executed a limited block reorganization, not a complete takeover of the network.
Despite the denials, Kraken, a prominent crypto exchange, announced a temporary suspension of Monero deposits, and in a later update, Kraken reactivated deposits but specified that 720 confirmations are necessary before crediting accounts with XMR.
“Given the current uncertainty concerning the security of the Monero network due to significant concentration of hash rate under one entity, Kraken may pause deposits at any time and exercise discretion in delaying crediting,” the exchange stated in an update on Monday.
On Sunday, the Qubic community voted to select Dogecoin (DOGE) as its next mining target, receiving more than 300 votes—surpassing all other options combined.
Following the vote, Sergey Ivancheglo, the Qubic network’s founder, clarified that DOGE mining “requires months of development,” and the mining pool is currently focused on producing XMR.
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