Dogecoin is once again facing a threat of a 51% attack as one mining pool, CleverMining, holds 47.2% of the Dogecoin mining network at press time.
This isn’t the first time they’ve faced such an issue. In April, another mining pool, Wafflepool, hovered dangerously close to holding 51% of the Dogecoin mining network’s hashrate, which would allow them to perform a 51% attack against the Dogecoin network.
However, the community got together and agreed to pull their mining power away from Wafflepool. As a result, Wafflepool now holds just 3.4% of the Dogecoin network’s hashrate as of this writing.
The backlash against Wafflepool across the Dogecoin community was enough to reduce Wafflepool’s hashrate, but the present situation with CleverMining shows that that was a temporary solution at best.
The 51% Attack Dilemma
Bitcoin recently faced threats of a 51% attack as well from GHash.IO, one of its largest mining pools.
Some called for GHash.IO to reduce its hashrate, but they were in favour of a more permanent solution, recognizing that even though they could artificially reduce their hashrate, it wouldn’t prevent another mining pool from taking their place, the exact situation which Dogecoin is now experiencing.
Their conclusion was that although technical solutions to the 51% issue currently exist, they aren’t ready to be implemented. So GHash.IO agreed to artificially reduce their hashrate to 40% or below in order to stave off the threat of a 51% attack.
Litecoin, meanwhile, faced a similar issue. Their solution was a voluntary association called the “Safe Hash Rate Alliance“, made up of mining pools who were committed to keeping their hashrate low enough to not propose a risk to the Litecoin network.
Preventing a 51% Attack
At present, there are no coins immune to a 51% attack. The big three coins have all been at risk to 51% attacks in the past months, and as mining becomes more centralized with bigger and more powerful machines, the threat will only get worse.
What’s needed is a real solution to the 51% attack problem. One which mitigates the 51% attack risk while at the same time doesn’t punish mining pool owners for being successful.
While some feel that the threat of a 51% attack is no big deal, others are concerned that it forces trust into what should be a trustless system.
Regardless, though, the threat of a 51% attack must be mitigated in cryptocurrency wants to continue to grow and prosper.
Dogecoin Faces Threat Of 51% Attack...Again
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