On June the 3rd, the ZenCash network was hardly attacked with a 51% attack. In this way, the attackers were able to double spend several transactions for over $500k. These methods are being used by individuals to steal funds in some virtual currencies in the market.
ZenCash Suffers 51% Attack
There are hundreds of Proof-of-Work virtual currencies. This one is based on the Equihash mining algorithm which is already used by other virtual currencies, including Zcash. ZenCash appeared in the market the last year after forking from ZClassic.
During the attack, 51% of the hash rate was controlled by a person or a group of people that allowed them to reorganize the blockchain multiple times. In this way, the attackers double spent two important transactions of 13,000 and 6,600 ZEN which are worth over $500,000 dollars.
ZenCash released a statement in which they explain the measures taken to avoid further problems. They have been warned about the attack by one of the pool operators, allowing the team to start investigating and evaluating the hash power distribution.
At the same time, they were contacting exchanges so as to increase confirmation times, but unfortunately two transactions have been double spent.
The ZenCash team wrote:
“At the time of the attack the Zen network hash rate was 38MSol/s. It is possible that the attacker has a private mining operation large enough to conduct the attack and/or supplement with rental has power. Net has rate is derived from the last mined block and therefore live has rate statistics are not available.”
Thy could also publish a suspected address znkMXdwwxvPp9jNoSjukABHjCShQ8ZaLib. The attacker was able to reorganize different blocks that ranged between 318165 and 318275.
The company said that they will be monitoring the network and conducting other forensic analysis so as to avoid future problems. As they explained, the team remains committed to ensuring the security of its customers’ funds.
The recommendation is to safely store the coins in hardware wallets or paper wallets, in this way, attackers would not have access to the funds.
At the moment of writing ZenCash is the 119 most important virtual currency in the market by market capitalization. Each token can be bought for $27 dollars and has lost 6% in the last 24 hours.
Also take a look at our review of the Crypto51.app website tool that talks about many of the popular coins and what it would take to run an effective 51% blockchain hack.
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