Qubic attempted a 51% attack against privacy blockchain Monero last week. It ultimately fell short, an independent report found, but the AI protocol is continuing its pursuit and seeks to change the privacy-centric Monero network forever.
Now, Qubic is setting its sights on Dogecoin for its next experiment, although there are currently no plans for a similar type of attack… yet. The new target came via a vote in Qubic’s Discord server, which saw Dogecoin beat out two other proof-of-work blockchains in Zcash and Kaspa.
Qubic is a proof-of-work blockchain that uses the consensus mechanism’s computational power to help propel its AI model—called AIGarth. For its attack on Monero, Qubic split its resources between mining Monero and training AIGarth, in what it calls its “Useful Proof-of-Work” consensus mechanism with “Outsourced Computations.” Qubic then rewards the miner for both its work on Monero and Qubic’s AI model.
However, by targeting Dogecoin next, Qubic says it isn’t necessarily going to launch a 51% attack attempt. That’s because Qubic’s founder Sergey Ivancheglo, more commonly known as Come-from-Beyond, said it would take “months” of development in preparation before Qubic starts mining the token.
Why Dogecoin? The Qubic team wanted to test if its design was efficient at mining an ASIC-based coin, or a coin best mined with dedicated mining rigs—whereas Monero is ASIC-resistant. It also appears that those voting on the Discord were wholly aware that targeting Dogecoin is more likely to grab the public’s attention.
Qubic’s token has climbed nearly 28% to a market cap of $363 million in the week following its Monero attack, per CoinGecko. That said, QUBIC remains down almost 77% from its all-time high of $577 million, set in March of this year.
“We want to see if we can create a similar incentive structure for an ASIC-based coin. We want to mine it for profit and see what it evolves into. That is still a few months away. Until then, we will continue with Monero mining,” pseudonymous Qubic marketing lead, Retrodrive, told Decrypt.
When pushed on whether Qubic would attempt a 51% attack on Dogecoin, if possible, Retrodrive said, “That would be speculation on my end. It's too early to tell. The team only knows to implement the feature. Beyond that, nothing has been shared.”
Some Discord users pushed back on the possibility of ever trying a 51% attack on an ASIC-mined coin, expressing confusion as to why the team is adamant on pursuing such projects. Ivancheglo cryptically responded, “You'll get it after season 2 is over.” The founder later, perhaps jokingly, said that the target is to mine “100%” of Dogecoin blocks.
Did the Monero 51% attack happen?
Qubic said that it was trying to “help” Monero by attempting to achieve 51% of the network’s hash rate. The group claimed it was done to protect Monero against future attacks by forcing the network to solely mine via Qubic's AI protocol.
A 51% attack occurs when a single miner or a group of miners controls the majority of a proof-of-work blockchain network's hash rate or computational power, giving it the ability to manipulate transactions and double-spend coins.
However, Shai Wyborski, an independent researcher commissioned by Qubic to research the incident, found that Qubic “most likely” never achieved 51% control over Monero. That said, Wyborksi is confident Qubic managed to obtain at least 28% of Monero’s hash rate, which they estimate gives the protocol a 0.3% chance to create a six-block-deep reorganization.
Retrodrive told Decrypt that Qubic’s internal KPI of mining 50% of blocks was achieved for 100 blocks, but this did not meet the bar for a successful 51% attack for outside experts.
“The elephant in the room is not what this means for Qubic, but what this means for Monero,” the report said. “Having been disrupted to such a thorough extent by an overall niche movement should considerably undermine their ability to [brand Monero as having high security].”
“[Qubic] maybe didn't succeed this time,” the report continued, “but they definitely showed that it is possible, and I believe that they can get there if they choose to persist.”
Indeed, Qubic has chosen to persist. Retrodrive told Decrypt that the group of miners will continue its pursuit to obtain 51% of Monero’s hash rate, and will look to change how the blockchain works forever.
“We are looking to take over Monero, but not to double-spend—as it will, as you say, ruin the protocol,” Retrodrive said. “We are, however, looking to change the rule where only miners who mine Monero through Qubic will earn block rewards. This will attract a lot more CPU miners to our protocol (we need them for AI training) and increase earnings. It will not, however, compromise Monero's privacy, and we will not rewrite the blockchain history [or] double-spend.”
Retrodrive claimed that Qubic is facing “very heavy” DDoS attacks following the high-profile attack, but said that 51% control over Monero’s hash rate could be reached “any day.” Once doing so, they explained, Qubic will attempt to rewrite Monero’s mining reward rules to only reward miners using the AI protocol.
If successful, Monero would technically be under a constant 51% attack from Qubic. However, Retrodrive claimed that power will remain decentralized between its miners. As such, they assured Monero users that a complete rewriting of the blockchain is extremely unlikely, as it would destroy Qubic’s profits and lead to major backlash against the protocol.
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