Bitcoin SV (BSV) Under Attack by 51% » Crypto Insiders

Bitcoin SV (BSV) was reportedly hit by a so-called 51% attack late yesterday afternoon. As a result of the attack three chains mined at the same time. Coin Metrics took to Twitter to report the attack.

Lucas Nuzzi of Coin Metrics explains in a tweet that an attempt was already made the day before yesterday to attack the network. The next attempt yesterday succeeded after a huge amount of hash power, Or computing power, on the network. Nuzzi explains:

“BSV is under massive attack at 51%.

After yesterday’s attack attempt, a great deal of hashing power was unleashed at 11:46 am today and the attackers are now succeeding.”

FARUM identified a 51% attack today on the BSV network at approximately 11:45 AM EST.https://t.co/Oy19UDw53t https://t.co/T3MMRHqPe8

– CoinMetrics.io (coinmetrics) August 3, 2021

The attack would have lasted at least three hours. As a result of a 51% attack, there is a chance that BSV has been spent twice. “All BSV deposit exchanges received during the attack may have been spent twice,” Nozi said.

Shortly after the attack, there was a great deal of uncertainty in the BSV mining pools. At the time, it was not clear which string was the correct string. In addition, the attackers could reorganize up to 14 blocks.

51% attack

A 51% attacks something that has a lot Proof of Work (PoW) Fans fear. Although in networks like Bitcoin (BTC) It’s nearly impossible due to the costs involved, and smaller networks like Bitcoin SV are more vulnerable due to less computing power.

51% indicates the percentage of computing power that attackers need to gain control of the network. Once the bad miners have the majority, 51%, of the hash rate, they can mine faster than the good miners.

The Bitcoin SV protocol dictates that the longest chain is the real one. So if bad miners are clandestinely working in the background faster than good miners, and they suddenly broadcast their chain over the network, the “bad” chain will become the real one. The attackers can therefore reverse the transactions made during the attack and reissue the BSV.