In a post on X, the mining pool Qubic announced that it had taken control of the Monero blockchain through a 51% attack. The news shocked the community of the leading privacy cryptocurrency. After several weeks under pressure, one of the most stable and secure networks now faces its most critical scenario.
The founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, reacted to the incident, stating that such an attack is impossible on his network. "No attack can take control of this network," he said, referring to Cardano and its robust multi-source consensus.
The Qubic project, led by IOTA co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo, decided to take control of the Monero network. Although the community managed to repel one of the recent attacks, the situation seems to have reached its limit. With the ability to rewrite the code, Qubic may become the only pool capable of mining this cryptocurrency.
The immediate consequence was a significant drop in the price of XMR, the native token of Monero. According to Qubic, this action is a "stress test" to prepare the community for future attacks. However, there are still doubts about the company's true intentions.
In July, Qubic controlled just over 2% of the network's computing power, but with its Useful Proof of Work method, it became the dominant mining force.
The price of XMR from Monero continues to fall after a successful 51% attack. Source: CoinMarketCap.
Reactions to the 51% attack on Monero
According to Qubic, the successful execution of a 51% attack was an experiment aimed at assessing the resilience of the network, ensuring that its core functions were not compromised. The company claims it will not manipulate the network through double spending or other methods but will act as the only mining pool.
After this acquisition of computing power, the privacy, speed, and usability of Monero remain intact. However, Qubic proposes that the security of the protocol be provided by its own miners, channeling all rewards through its pools and, according to them, generating greater incentives for Monero mining.
The episode leaves numerous unanswered questions, especially about the risk of centralization. Will Qubic inherit the regulatory pressure and investigations that Monero has historically faced? Will the company be forced to modify or remove the network's privacy features? While much of the community is absorbing the blow, some are starting to debate whether this change could have a positive side.
