Only centralized cryptographic networks that are immune to 51% attacks: Lee from Litecoin

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charlie lee litecoin 51% offense

Ethereum Classic (ETC), the smallest spin-off of Ethereum, is still recovering from the 51% attack on its blockchain, resulting in the theft of over $ 1 million ETC tokens and a & # 39 erosion of almost 10% of the value of cryptocurrency.

The reactions to this attack are spreading from various parts, including the temporary ban on various activities involving ETC by the major cryptocurrency trading platforms such as Coinbase and Kraken. Even experts and industry institutions have evaluated the issue, as this incident could influence public perception and the adoption of blockchain, and how incidents like this can be prevented in the future.

Blockchain failed?

In an email conversation with Bloomberg, venture capitalist Kyle Samani said the blockchain attack success proves that the Ethereum Classic blockchain essentially failed in one of its core responsibilities as a decentralized cryptocurrency network.

Samani wrote:

I am surprised that ETC does not fall 50% or more. The most probable explanation is that the largest holders keep their assets out of stock, leaving them unable to transfer and sell them.

However, Charlie Lee – the founder and developer of Litecoin – seems to believe that with this attack, the Ethereum Classic blockchain exhibits only one of the inherent characteristics of a blockchain. In a tweet first This week, Lee said that every decentralized cryptocurrency is susceptible to attacks of this nature, and any blockchain that demonstrates an immunity to this type of attack is essentially centralized and authorized.

"By definition, a decentralized cryptocurrency must be susceptible to 51% attacks, either by hash rate, by quota, and / or other resources that can not be acquired without authorization," wrote the creator of Litecoin.

Each PoW encryption is [Technically] Susceptible to 51% attack

Lee's sentiment was shared by Donald McIntyre, a member of the ETCDEV development team, which was closed in December 2018 due to lack of funds following the crisis in the encrypted market. In a post published in Medium on January 8th, McIntyre wrote:

Keep in mind that the current attacks that ETC has suffered are not a function of imperfect internal design or a hacking & # 39; of the system. It was a double-expense mining attack and a security breach that is a formal hypothesis in its design, which is vulnerable to 51% attacks, as in any other work blockchain trial, including Bitcoin.

In the post, McIntyre also claimed that the blockchain could be protected from attacks like this in the future through a modification of the mining algorithm. At press time, ETC is ranked at the 18th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and trades at $ 5.04.

Image of Charlie Lee from Slush 2018 / YouTube

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