Yet, as the cryptocurrency exchange with the highest trading quantity of ETC, OKEx acknowledged that getting rid of ETC from trading would not be an easy choice to make, according to Jay Hao, president of the exchange.
” Given ETC’s popularity as well as standing, we are not rushing into delisting,” Hao told CoinDesk in a Telegram message on Aug. 17. “However, they require to execute significant upgrades to the network to minimize the opportunities of one more 51% strike taking place.”
OKEx has confirmed a loss of roughly $5.6 million in Ethereum Classic (ETC) from two recent 51% strikes as well as is taking into consideration getting rid of ETC from its exchanges.
The impact of the two 51% assaults to ETC’s rate has actually not been significant.
The Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange reimbursed all the lost ETC in full to its customers as part of its user-protection plan, according to a report published by OKEx on Saturday, and all down payments and also withdrawals of ETC have actually been suspended because of the attacks.
” We know that it is impossible to stop a 51% strike on any decentralized exchange, yet we likewise do not wish to pay the bill for ETC’s safety vulnerabilities that have actually made it especially at risk to assault( s),” claimed Hao.
Continued susceptability
The recent 51% assaults on Ethereum Classic initially occurred on Aug. 1 with complete double-spending of $5.6 million worth of ETC. The second strike happened simply 5 days later, shedding about $1.68 million well worth of ETC
. A 51 %strike on a blockchain refers to a circumstance where one or more miners attempt to gain control of over half of the mining power of the network. Compared with blockchains such as Bitcoin that have much a greater hashrate, blockchains with reduced hashrates including Ethereum Classic are “more vulnerable” to this type of assault, according to OKEx’s report.
” It is evident that this violation in the blockchain’s secure functioning was because of an usual issue with the Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains that have low international hashpower,” the record said. “… [T] his is definitely not limited to Ethereum Classic, which experienced a comparable attack just in 2015. Other blockchains, such as Bitcoin Gold (BTG), have actually endured such assaults in the past.”
Liquidity, and also targeting OKEx
The exchange stated in its record its only participation in the assaults was the opponents made use of OKEx to trade as well as purchase ETC. This case was a defense to an analysis by blockchain analytics strong Bitquery, which declared those budgets the opponent( s) made use of belonged to OKEx.
” As for why the aggressor( s) chose OKEx particularly to purchase as well as trade their ETC, the most likely factor is liquidity,” the exchange stated. “OKEx gives excellent ETC liquidity, seeing a few of the largest ETC deal quantities in the industry. This simply indicates that the assailant( s) likely determined that they would certainly have the ability to fairly easily and also immediately trade large amounts of ETC on OKEx.”
Similar to other exchanges, OKEx claimed it will certainly raise the confirmation times for ETC deposits as well as withdrawals in the future.
The fate of Ethereum Classic has actually remained in question considering that the attacks. In the meantime, 51% attacks are a fact for low-cap cryptocurrencies, ETC Coop Executive Director Bob Summerwill informed CoinDesk, yet options such as an emergency situation tough fork to a various hashing formula could assist avoid future strikes.
OKEx additionally exposed its hot purse system, providing even more openness regarding the withdrawing and also depositing procedure on its hot purse system.
According to a chart supplied by OKEx in its record, 95% funds at OKEx are kept in its cool purse and about 5% funds are saved in its warm pocketbook system, which has actually deployed both semi-offline as well as on the internet threat monitoring systems.
” This assault has been academic for us,” Hao claimed. “We found out that our durable warm pocketbook system functioned precisely as made but we also located some ways to improve it and are still working on this.
Ethereum Classic’s rate was $7.49 since press time, up by 4.12% over the past 24 hrs.
The recent 51% assaults on Ethereum Classic first occurred on Aug. 1 with total double-spending of $5.6 million well worth of ETC. Compared with blockchains such as Bitcoin that have much a higher hashrate, blockchains with reduced hashrates including Ethereum Classic are “extra vulnerable” to this kind of strike, according to OKEx’s report.
” As for why the attacker( s) selected OKEx in particular to purchase and trade their ETC, the most likely factor is liquidity,” the exchange said. “OKEx offers superb ETC liquidity, seeing some of the biggest ETC transaction quantities in the industry. This simply indicates that the enemy( s) most likely determined that they would certainly be able to reasonably quickly and quickly trade big quantities of ETC on OKEx.”