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In theory, the registers of a blockchain can not be modified because a sufficient number of disparate parts is incentivized to maintain an accurate accounting of who owns what. But a 51% attack can change that calculation, allowing someone to falsify transactions and spend the same participation more than once, substantially undermining the usefulness of a digital payment system and the trust of people in it .
Supporters of blockchain technology often talk about network security, but a 51% attack is one of the flaws. Currently they are quite rare but have occurred in some cases, in particular with smaller cryptocurrencies. Last year, litecoin cash and zencash both suffered 51% of attacks. It is thought that the size of a cryptocurrency network is therefore a defense: it becomes prohibitively expensive to hire more than half of a gigantic distributed system.
Tuesday morning, ethereum classic had a market capitalization of over $ 500 million. This is in stark contrast to the capitalization of nearly $ 70 billion bitcoins, but still means the token rank in the top 20 cryptocurrencies measured by CoinMarketCap.
