2019-1-9 23:19 |
The cryptocurrency exchange Gate.io explained that it lost $200,000 in Ethereum Classic (ETC) coins after the 51% attack that the network is currently experiencing. It seems that the exchange lost 40,000 ETC since the network experienced double spend attacks.
The information was released a few hours ago by the crypto exchange in a blog post and shows that the attack continues to affect different parties in the space.
Gate.io is just one of the exchanges that confirmed that the ETC network is experiencing a 51% attack. Apparently, three addresses have been identified to be related to the attacker.
The exchange explains that the sensor they have blocked attacker’s transactions and submitted them to a manual exam. However, during the attack, all the transactions looked valid and were confirmed on the blockchain. The company informed that they will also be taking all this loss for the users.
The blog post reads as follows:
“It [the attack] caused about 40k ETC loss due to this attack. Gate.io will take all the loss for the users.”
Coinbase is another exchange that confirmed the situation. Apparently, deep block reorganizations started to occur earlier on Monday. As a result, several double spends occurred on the network. According to some reports, the attacks continue.
According to Bitfly CEO, Peter Pratscher, the number of reorganized blocks can be confirmed on the ETC network but no analysis of the movement of transactions could be performed yet. That means that to confirm double spendings it will be necessary to make a deeper analysis.
According to Andrew Cravenho, Blockscout’s project lead, a reorg that occurred between blocks 7261495 and 7261496, 26,000 ETC were spent and once and for a second time on block number 7261497.
He is also sceptical about the version provided by Ethereum Classic on its Twitter account. They’ve informed that the attack could be related to the testing of ASIC miners by the Linzhi Shenzhen. However, during a conversation with CoinDesk, Wolfgang Spraul denied the accusations saying that they would never be testing new ASICs on any mainnet.
This is in line with what Cravenho believes. He said that if a company would be tasting new hardware they would not do testings with $100,000 in just a single transaction.
Talking with CoinDesk, Donald McIntyre, a developer of the Ethereum Classic community, mentioned that there was no attack by any ASIC provider. However, Cody Burns, another ETC developer said that what is happening on the network is yet to be uncovered to understand better what is happening.
After the attack will pass, McIntyre suggests that developer teams behind ETC must change the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm behind.
Currently, Ethereum Classic is the 18th largest digital asset in the market. In the last 24 hours, it has lost 3%, becoming one of the worst performing assets among the top 50. Each ETC can be purchased for $4.97 and it has a market capitalization of $533 million.
Similar to Notcoin - Blum - Airdrops In 2024