The developers for Bitcoin gold announced last week they thwarted an organized ‘51% attack’. They revealed they have found out about the incoming attack about a week earlier.
The so-called ’51% attack’ refers to attacks on blockchain networks – most commonly cryptocurrencies – by a grouping of miners aiming to take control of more than 50% of the network`s hash rate or computing power. This way, attackers will be able to gain control over confirmations of new transactions, giving them the power to determine whether to halt payments among some or all users at the network. They could also reverse any transfers that were made while they controlled the network, which opens the door for double-spending of coins.
Bitcoin gold informed mining pools and exchanges about the attack on July 2 and urged users to ‘upgrade their nodes’ on July 10.
The developing team made the information about the attack public after the unknown attacker, which started mining blocks on July 1, released 1300 block late on July 10.
Aware of the incoming attack, on July 2 the developers issued an update that created a checkpoint at block 640650. That checkpoint prevented the chain of the attacking party to take over the honest chain, a statement said.
There are currently only 108 Bitcoin gold nodes in existence in the entire world. About 30% of them are located in Germany.
The price of digital assets remained largely unaffected by the attack, remaining between $9 and $10 since the begging of July.
