{"id":112066,"date":"2019-08-19T01:02:11","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T08:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/?p=112066"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:24:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:24:42","slug":"why-litecoins-dominance-mining-algorithm-critical-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/why-litecoins-dominance-mining-algorithm-critical-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Hostile mining attacks on minority hash power coins \u2014 why Litecoin is more secure than Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/people\/charlie-lee\/\">Charlie Lee<\/a> announced that <a href=\"http:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/litecoin\">Litecoin<\/a> controls 98 percent of the hash rate for its \u201cScrypt\u201d mining algorithm. This dominance is critical for the security of LTC. Meanwhile, other coins which have minority control over their algorithm, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/bitcoin-cash\/\">Bitcoin Cash<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/bitcoin-sv\/\">Bitcoin SV<\/a>, remain at high risk of malicious attack.<\/p>\n<p>On Aug. 12, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee announced that his coin had over 98 percent of the market share of its unique ASIC-dominated mining algorithm \u2018Scrypt.\u2019<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here&#39;s the current state of Scrypt mining after the Litecoin halving.<\/p>\n<p>Litecoin still dominates the Scrypt mining scene with 98.57% of all Scrypt hashrate pointed at mining Litecoin. \ud83d\udc4d<\/p>\n<p>Note: Merged mined doesn&#39;t count towards total. I got the data from: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3dcY7yrTGo\">https:\/\/t.co\/3dcY7yrTGo<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/N2vN6RbVeq\">https:\/\/t.co\/N2vN6RbVeq<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LucwNaAthN\">pic.twitter.com\/LucwNaAthN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Charlie Lee \u24c2\ufe0f\ud83d\udd78\ufe0f (@SatoshiLite) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SatoshiLite\/status\/1161015145142730754?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 12, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Hash rate majority over Scrypt, or any mining algorithm, plays an important role in maintaining the security of the network against hostile mining attacks meant to pillage a cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n<h2>Hostile mining attacks<\/h2>\n<p>Game theory plays an important role in well-designed cryptocurrencies. Unlike its technological predecessors, crypto leverages economic incentives to ensure participants are honest and that networks are salient against bad actors. When these incentives are misaligned the system breaks.<\/p>\n<p>One poorly understood aspect of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies is the importance of hash rate dominance within a particular mining algorithm. If a miner is able to achieve majority hash power (51 percent hash rate) in a particular coin, then there are several hostile attacks that they could perform on a network.<\/p>\n<p>One obvious attack is rejecting blocks from everyone else, allowing a miner to take every block reward. Other more complex attacks include denying transactions and attempting to conduct double-spends, as described in an <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@jimmysong\/mining-centralization-scenarios-b74102adbd36\">essay<\/a> by renowned <a href=\"http:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/bitcoin\">Bitcoin<\/a> developer and evangelist Jimmy Song.<\/p>\n<p>Another more exotic attack <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/articles\/selfish-mining-a-25-attack-against-the-bitcoin-network-1383578440\">described<\/a> by Ethereum co-founder <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/people\/vitalik-buterin\/\">Vitalik Buterin<\/a> is described as \u201cselfish mining,\u201d where a miner with less than 25 percent or less of the network hash rate can coerce other miners into cartelization by manipulating how blocks are found.<\/p>\n<p>For smaller coins these attacks are even easier because a large miner on a dominant coin can easily control more than 50 percent of a smaller coin\u2019s hash power. For more information on the anatomy of 51% attacks <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/explained-51-percent-attacks-on-bitcoin-cryptocurrencies\/\">read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Incentives usually align between network and miners<\/h2>\n<p>That said, even if a miner had majority control of a coin\u2019s hash power, there are concrete reasons why they are still incentivized to behave honestly. Hostile miners take on lots of risk, as described in a highly cited <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.sia.tech\/the-state-of-cryptocurrency-mining-538004a37f9b\">essay<\/a> by David Vorick, the co-founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/sia\">Sia<\/a> and Obelisk.<\/p>\n<p>Other stakeholders in a network can limit the damage done by a hostile miner. For example, in Bitcoin full node operators could reject blocks from hostile miners, says Vorick.<\/p>\n<p>The value of the cryptocurrency the miner is attacking would also likely plummet, decreasing the long-term profitability of that miner\u2019s highly specialized mining equipment (for ASICs). This is in addition to the reputational damage a miner would face.<\/p>\n<p>As said by David Vorick:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cTo put it simply, this attack really doesn\u2019t make much sense from an economic perspective because there is simply not enough upside for the attacker.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>ASICs as bonds<\/h2>\n<p>In a sense, ASICs behave like a security bond between a miner and the cryptocurrency network they support. Assuming the coin has a dominant position for its mining algorithm, if a miner were to conduct an attack it would damage the value of the cryptocurrency they are mining. This would reduce the value of subsequent block rewards and as a result, reduce the long term revenues\u2014and value\u2014of that miner\u2019s ASICs, assuming they couldn\u2019t switch to another coin.<\/p>\n<p>Proof-of-stake algorithms attempt to mimic this dynamic through the use of <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/ethereum\/wiki\/wiki\/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ\">stake slashing<\/a>, where stakers put down collateral in the form of more coins that can be redistributed.<\/p>\n<p>In aggregate, the short-term revenue from double-spends, block reward hoarding, and transaction denial would need to outweigh both the risk of failure and the long-term damage to revenue.<\/p>\n<h2>Pillaging attacks on minority coins<\/h2>\n<p>That said, there are key circumstances where the economics actually encourage hostile attacks on a cryptocurrency\u2014specifically in cases where a coin has the minority share of a particular mining algorithm.<\/p>\n<p>When two or more cryptocurrencies use the same mining algorithm seldom do they have a similar proportion of the total hash rate. Bitcoin, for example, has a 90 percent dominance over SHA-256 while Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, and all other forks control less than 10 percent. Another drastic example is <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/zcash\/\">Zcash<\/a>, which maintains a 98 percent share of Equihash while coins like <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/horizen\/\">Horizen<\/a> (formerly Zen) and <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/hush\/\">Hush<\/a> control the remainder.<\/p>\n<p>In these scenarios, it makes sense for a miner to switch from mining a dominant coin, such as Bitcoin, to a secondary coin, like Bitcoin Cash, to conduct an attack.<\/p>\n<h2>Hash rate privateers<\/h2>\n<p>The reasoning: there are fewer economic penalties for this behavior. As mentioned above, hostile attacks usually reduce long term miner revenues. When a miner attacks a minority coin the reduction in long term revenue may be negligible.<\/p>\n<p>These attacks aren\u2019t just a concern for ASICs but also for general purpose hardware. CPUs and GPUs have healthy secondary resale markets. Many coins are also designing their mining algorithms to compete for these devices. As a result, miners can attack and switch with impunity.<\/p>\n<p>In these scenarios a miner can switch to a secondary coin and ransack the cryptocurrency. After flooding the market with illicit coins the miner can then return to safely mining the dominant coin while reaping a tidy profit.<\/p>\n<h2>Not just theory<\/h2>\n<p>These attacks aren\u2019t just theoretical. Both <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/ethereum-classic\/\">Ethereum Classic<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/coins\/horizen\/\">Zen<\/a> (which rebranded to Horizen to mitigate reputational damage) <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/ethereum-classic-experiencing-51-percent-attack-immutability-violated\/\">suffered<\/a> 51% attacks because of the phenomenon described above. Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV also suffered similar attacks during their split and their ensuing <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoslate.com\/explained-bitcoin-cash-hash-wars-where-the-factions-stand-on-the-issues\/\">hash war<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>These considerations are important to keep in mind for those looking to hold cryptocurrency, especially altcoins, as investments. Evaluating whether a coin is at risk of mining attacks, or relatively safe like Litecoin, has meaningful implications for long term returns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charlie Lee announced that Litecoin controls 98 percent of the hash rate for its \u201cScrypt\u201d mining algorithm. This dominance is critical for the security of LTC. Meanwhile, other coins which have minority control over their algorithm, such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV, remain at high risk of malicious attack. On Aug. 12, Litecoin creator [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":112068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120,2376],"tags":[],"prediction_market_topic":[],"post_folder":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.9 (Yoast SEO v21.9.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hostile mining attacks on minority hash power coins \u2014 why Litecoin is more secure than Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Charlie Lee announced that Litecoin controls 98 percent of the hash rate for its \u201cScrypt\u201d mining algorithm. 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