Analyst “surprised” Bitcoin Cash has escaped an attack after 30% hash rate drop, but BCH proponent hits back 🚨 This article is 5 years old...
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Analyst “surprised” Bitcoin Cash has escaped an attack after 30% hash rate drop, but BCH proponent hits back
2 min read
Updated: May. 26, 2020 at 9:58 pm UTC
Photo by Bronwyn on Unsplash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has suffered a drop in hashrate after its April 8 halving. Despite the network suffering no unwanted consequences, a crypto-analyst thinks it is surprising that the controversial cryptocurrency has not suffered a “large-scale” attack yet.
Can it be done?
Yassine Elmandjra, a crypto analyst at data-driven investment firm ARK Invest, tweeted on May 24 the BCH network has fallen 30 percent since April 2020, with only 2 percent of the SHA-256 hashrate accounted for.
Bitcoin Cash is not looking healthy:
-Hashrate down 30% since halving (& only accounts for ~2% of SHA256 hash)
-Economic throughput at all time lows
-Fees are .05% of miner rev (<$100/day)
-Theoretical 51% attack costs <$10k/hrSurprised we haven't seen a large scale attack yet
— Yassine Elmandjra (@yassineARK) May 23, 2020
Elamandjra assumes a 51 percent attack can occur with only $10,000 per day, if all calculations are considered.
A look at BCH hash rates on BitinfoCharts shows the average daily values for the Bitcoin fork have steadily plunged, with the values surging before Bitcoin’s May 12 halving and falling about 25 percent, approximately, from April levels.
It’s unclear at what values Elamandrja based his calculations on, given they fluctuate over days and can make estimations on outdated data redundant. Data from early-2020 shows hash rates were roughly double of the current hash rate outputs, meaning the $10,000 figure for a theoretical attack would not hold true.
Reportedly, BCH networks have become painstaking slow in recent times, signaling some miners may have left the network. In April 2020, just “four blocks in three hours” were confirmed by the network, as crypto investor Alistair Milne noted:
Bcash block speed has dropped 83%
Just four blocks in three hoursRemember when @rogerkver said it was faster than #Bitcoin? It isn't even the same speed at the moment pic.twitter.com/X8M7BWb6pB
— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) April 9, 2020
However, any claims regarding 51 percent attacks on the BCH network are unsubstantiated, writes BitcoinBCH founder Hayden Otto.
BCH guy says no
Otto believes Elmadjra’s claims do not include external factors, such as the “lack of incentive” for BCH miners to take down the network. This includes major firms like BTC.com and AntPool, which in his view, are supportive of Bitcoin Cash.
He notes:
“These pool operators are able to immediately switch their BTC hash rate over to Bitcoin Cash, aiding any existing Bitcoin Cash hash rate they all have, if they detect an attack.”
Otto says the network was defended by “superior hash” on two previous occasions when Bitcoin “Satoshi Vision” (BSV) proponents Calvin Ayre and Craig Wright infamously tried to take down the BCH network.
The BCH-proponent also speaks about BCH’s “Deep Reorg Protection,” a protocol that prevents the creation of longer chains if certain criteria are met.
Attacking a blockchain network is not easy, and even “highly improbable,” said Otto. He believes most do not understand the intricacies behind crypto mining and reaping block rewards, and continue to spread a false narrative.
Bitcoin Cash Market Data
At the time of press 9:58 pm UTC on May. 26, 2020, Bitcoin Cash is ranked #5 by market cap and the price is down 1.73% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin Cash has a market capitalization of $4.19 billion with a 24-hour trading volume of $2.5 billion. Learn more about Bitcoin Cash ›
Crypto Market Summary
At the time of press 9:58 pm UTC on May. 26, 2020, the total crypto market is valued at at $247.66 billion with a 24-hour volume of $94.75 billion. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 65.55%. Learn more about the crypto market ›
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In this article
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency created via a fork of the Bitcoin network.
Calvin Ayre was born on May 25, 1961, and raised on a pig farm in Canada.
Milne founded his first company aged 17, also working for AOL in 1996.
Craig Steven Wright, commonly referred to as CSW, is an Australian computer scientist and business professional who has been at the center of controversy within the cryptocurrency community.