A 51% attack is when a blockchain is stormed by a group of miners. The latter then take control of at least half of all the computing power used to mine and process transactions. The Ethereum (ETH) network is preparing for this type of attacks by simulating it through the Ethereum Fire Drill. The Ethereum community could speed things up by participating in the operation.
What to expect with the attacks of the 51%?
On July 26, the kylar account.eth a made a Twitter post to declare: “ “Ethereum Fire Drill” – who is there to help design and execute so we can be better prepared to recover from a 51% real attack? Imho, we will see 51% attacks on Ethereum (and Bitcoin for that matter) in our lifetime. ».
A 51% attack or majority attack is when an entity seizes 50% of the hashing power of a blockchain. A single person or a group of individuals may be at the origin of this break-in. An attack of the 51% can lead to data loss. In addition, it offers attackers the opportunity to partially modify the blockchain code. This attack also causes the confirmation to be blocked or the order of new transactions to be changed.
The probability of a 51% attack on a blockchain is reduced as it grows by obtaining new mining nodes. This is due to the fact that it costs more to carry out such an attack as the hashrate of the network increases.
The Ethereum (ETH) blockchain has recently launched a simulation that should help it cope with possible 50% real attacks. The network could better prepare for these types of attacks by switching to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus. Indeed, with the latter, it is possible to carry out a recovery in case of data loss. However, this is not the case with Proof-of-Work (PoW).
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Far from having cooled my ardor, an unsuccessful investment in 2017 on a cryptocurrency only increased my enthusiasm. I therefore resolved to study and understand the blockchain and its many uses and to relay information related to this ecosystem with my pen.
