The Monero community is exploring possible solutions to reform its proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to protect the network from 51% attacks.
Community members have proposed several suggestions, including localized mining hardware, switching to merged mining algorithms, allowing XMR to be mined together with Bitcoin (BTC) or other major cryptocurrencies, and adopting Dash's ChainLocks solution.
Dash's ChainLocks achieve consensus on valid blocks first broadcasted on the network by using 'randomly selected masternodes', which locks the blockchain and only appends blocks verified through the ChainLock system. This will run on top of the existing PoW consensus.
ChainLocks can prevent 51% network attacks and block reorganizations, even if the proposed blocks come from selfish or malicious miners and the accumulated proof of work is higher than the chain verified by ChainLocks.
Qubic, a blockchain and mining pool focused on AI, announced in August that it gained 51% control over Monero, raising concerns in the community about a potential shift to other proof-of-work blockchains.
Although some Monero users deny Qubic's control, Kraken has still announced the suspension of Monero deposits.
