In the world of cryptocurrencies, there is a major threat known as the 51% attack. Numerous currencies have suffered from such attacks, and the year 2018 has been no different in this regard. It now seems one particular user is intent on attacking Einsteinium next week. The event will be broadcasted on Twitch, which raises a lot of questions.
Openly Promoting 51% Attacks
For smaller-cap cryptocurrencies, it is evident there are numerous threats to contend with. A lack of overall interest will usually cause the coin’s price to fluctuate significantly. Low trading volumes often lead to pump-and-dump cycles, which have become somewhat less prevalent in the cryptocurrency over the past few years.
Unfortunately, that is not the biggest problem a lot of cryptocurrencies face right now. As has become throughout 2018, there is a growing number of 51% attacks which try to disrupt networks or even trigger double-spend attacks in the process. Several incidents have occurred this year alone, and it seems a new attack may very well be looming on the horizon.
According to a recent Reddit post, the user known as Team-periwinkle is planning to perform a 51% attack against the Einsteinium cryptocurrency. This project is a small-cap altcoin, and it seems it has somehow gotten on this user’s radar. Whether or not he or she has a grudge against this altcoin or simply looks to illustrate the threat of 51% attacks in general, remains unclear at this time.
The user claims this 51% attack will be performed next week, and the event will be livestreamed on the Twitch platform. It seems unlikely the streaming service would allow for such events to be broadcasted, as they clearly illustrate an intent to cause damage. At the same time, it is evident incidents like these need to be documented accordingly to ensure such attacks cannot happen again in the future.
Initially, the goal was to introduce this attack on the Bitcoin testnet. That decision has been turned around by actively going after the main net of this particular altcoin. It seems the user is also intent on attacking other currencies in the future, which raises even more questions. To make matters worse, it appears the user has successfully claimed donations from users who want to fund these particular attacks.
All of this highlights the somewhat toxic nature of cryptocurrency communities in this day and age. Purposefully attack smaller-cap altcoins for the sake of doing so is not something that will make people more intent on exploring cryptocurrencies. Instead, there is a good chance efforts like these will make people even more averse of cryptocurrencies than they already are. A very worrisome trend, for obvious reasons.
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