Ethereum Classic Suffers 51% Attack Again: Delisting Risk Amplified

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Beleaguered Ethereum Classic (ETC) blockchain suffered yet another 51% attack on August 29. The latest attack caused the reorganization of over 7,000 blocks and this corresponds to approximately two days of mining. At the time of reporting, it was not clear if there had been any double-spending as was the case in the last attack. In that attack, it was reported that the Okex exchange suffered a loss of $5.6 million directly as a result.

A statement revealing the attack adds that “all lost blocks will be removed from the immature balance and we will check all payouts for dropped transactions.”

Meanwhile, in their initial comments on the latest attack, developers working on ETC are attributing ongoing attacks to the network’s known vulnerabilities.

“ETC is ~3% of the overall ETH network hash rate. We are well aware of potential repeated attacks while solutions such as “reorg caps” and the subsequent ECIPs are being tested and evaluated. If you haven’t already please increase (which most have) please raise confs above ~10K,” reads a Twitter statement from the main ETC team.

Furthermore, the statement urges miners, exchanges, and other service providers to keep “confirmation requirements levels well above 7k for now.”

Meanwhile, the timing of the latest attack is certain to raise eyebrows. The latest network attack, which is the third time this has happened in a month, occurred shortly after some community members had announced the addition of two new Ethereum Classic Improvements Proposals (ECIP).

Proposed by Input-OutputHK, the first ECIP introduces a checkpoint system to prevent the possibility of another attack while the second one proposes a decentralized treasury.

However, following the last attack, the ETC community had been split on the way forward and particularly over the second proposal. After heated exchanges, it appears the Charles Hoskinson’s camp, which favors the controversial proposition, has prevailed.

Interestingly, however, news of the latest attack appears to have had a little effect on the ETC price. At the time of writing, the ETC traded at $6.71 marginally down from the $6.74 at around the time the breach was discovered.

Still, there is a real possibility that some exchanges will delist the token following this attack. Okex has already stated that it will “consider delisting ETC, pending the results of the Ethereum Classic community’s work to improve the security of its chain.” The latest attack might now force the exchange to act on the threat.

Do you think the ETC community is doing enough to stop these attacks? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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