Ethereum Classic (ETC) Gets Attacked By Hackers Who Alter Transactions


The entire cryptocurrency community was struck with anxiety yesterday when the Ethereum Classic blockchain came under attack by bad actors. The bad actors altered transactions on the blockchain forcing some exchanges to stop all ETC transaction. Some others that are still carrying out these transactions require longer confirmation times to avoid manipulation during the process.


How Was The Ethereum Classic (ETC) Network Attacked?

According to the official handle of the ETC network, there was a double spend attack on the platform. At the time the announcement was made, the handle noted that the network is functioning normally even with the possible threat. A few hours following the original announcement, they said that exchanges should take precautions while processing trades to avoid being attacked.


Ethereum Classic (ETC) Price Today – ETC / USD
NamePrice
bitcoin
Bitcoin
$0.00
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic
$0.00


Shortly after the announcement was made, Etherchain, the popular mining operator, issued a warning as well. According to Etherchain, there was a 51% attack on the blockchain. Normally, when a single mining pool or miner controls over 50% of the computing power of any blockchain, it will be able to control the network or launch an attack on it. They can alter the blockchain to double spend coins in a bid to gain more than they deserve.
Also, Etherplan’s founder Donald Mclntyre, said that a single miner had over 60% of the total hash rate for a short while.

GasTracker, one unpopular malicious miner on the network, has had control of more than 45% of the network hashrate within the last 24 hours. If the bad actors launch the attack successfully, they will be able to cash out up to $30,000 in ETC. This is typically the amount a person gets after securing the network.


So far, many of the blocks that have been produced by the malicious miner have contained no transactions. The ETC community manager at IOHK, Kevin Lord, said that the problem on the network was mainly caused by the actions of the single selfish miner and not the 51% attack. However, Coinbase believes the motives were more sinister. The American cryptocurrency exchange became aware of the attack on the network a few days ago. The announcement was as follows:


“On the 5th of January 2019, we detected a deepchain reorganization of the Ethereum Classic blockchain which included double spend. To protect the funds in our possession, we had to stop all ETC transactions. Before this event, we noticed another reorganization of the network that included double spend worth $460,000 in ETC.”


It’s possible that the attacker transferred up to $500,000 tokens by changing a version of the blockchain’s history. It will not be easy for all exchanges that have ETC listed to coordinate and make sure everyone is using the same history while they cut out the attacker.


This isn’t the first time a blockchain is being attacked in this manner. It only goes further to prove that building a reliable public network on the blockchain will be difficult. In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold suffered a similar problem. This attack makes a network vulnerable and removes its immutability status.


Ethereum Classic (ETC) Price Analysis


At the time of writing, ETC was trading at $4.94. This shows that it is down by 7.01% against the USD and down by 5.5% against Bitcoin. The news about the possible attack on the network may have contributed to the already declining trend.

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