According to reports, a mining pool attempting a 51% takeover of Monero is facing a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, significantly reducing the effectiveness of its takeover attempt.
In a post on the X platform on Sunday, Sergey Ivancheglo, who claims responsibility for the takeover attempt, stated that his Qubic mining pool is under DDoS attack. He further noted that this attack has caused the pool's hash rate to plummet from 2.6 gigahashes per second (GH/s) to 0.8 GH/s.
A user questioned whether DDoS is a sustainable countermeasure against the Monero takeover attempt and asked Ivancheglo for a cost estimate. Ivancheglo explained, "If you already have a botnet for mining Monero, then the cost is zero. So we are building defenses, assuming they can continue the attack indefinitely."
DDoS attacks typically flood a target with massive amounts of traffic from multiple sources, overwhelming it and making it inaccessible. These attacks often utilize networks of infected computers controlled by malware (i.e., botnets) to carry out the assault.
On Monday, Ivancheglo claimed in another X post, "Qubic is under DDoS attack from Monero," adding that the attack has lasted for six hours. He also stated that his team has implemented protective measures to mitigate the disruption.
"Let's see what these desperate people will manage to break this time," he said.
Cointelegraph verified that direct queries to the Qubic mining pool had an average response time of 0.188 seconds across three endpoints, with no requests lost. Considering that the traffic is routed through a virtual private network server, this response time is within normal operational ranges and does not indicate a sustained DDoS attack.
Cointelegraph's investigation concluded that, at the time of writing, the mining pool was operating normally. However, this investigation could not prove whether a DDoS attack had been successfully carried out previously.
MiningPoolStats data shows that Qubic is the last mining pool without hash power, as it stopped reporting its hash rate on July 30. However, Qubic's hash rate tracking service claims that when the network's intermittent mining operations switch to Monero (XMR), its peak intermittent mining can reach 1.6 GH/s.
Ivancheglo expressed suspicion that Sergei Chernykh, the developer of the Monero mining software XMRig, "orchestrated the [DDoS] attack."
In a screenshot of a Reddit comment verified by Cointelegraph, Chernykh discussed a "solution" in response to a user asking about the motivations of illegal market participants relying on Monero for anonymous transactions and their protection of Monero.
In a statement to Cointelegraph, Chernykh indicated that the plan he discussed publicly subtly hinted at a legitimate solution. This is evident in the full comment above, where he wrote, "I have a solution (even a completely legal solution) for them." He emphasized that he has not seen evidence that a DDoS attack has indeed occurred and added:
Monero is known for its privacy-first feature set and strong focus on anonymity. Due to its emphasis on anonymity, it is considered a currency for payments for so-called illegal goods and services on the dark web, with reports suggesting that nearly half of the black market accepts Monero.
In a suspected Discord screenshot that Cointelegraph could not verify, Chernykh allegedly discussed upcoming countermeasures against Qubic's ongoing takeover attempts on Monero. He is also the author of the top-voted comment in a now-deleted Reddit post "praising XMRig developers."
Chernykh further pointed out:
Chernykh hinted that he is exploring other completely legal countermeasures. He claimed to have intentionally kept his posts vague or even misleading to avoid revealing his countermeasure plans.
The XMRig developer emphasized that DDoS attacks are illegal in most or all jurisdictions, and he has never considered such means. He acknowledged that he cannot speak for other members of the community and added:
As Cointelegraph previously reported, the Qubic network is attempting to take over the Monero network by leveraging its hash power and economic incentives. After its Monero mining pool rapidly rose to become the largest pool, the community became aware of the publicly disclosed takeover network plans, leading to a swift decline in Qubic's market share.
The Monero mined by Qubic is used to fund token burns and buybacks for the Qubic ecosystem, with miners being rewarded in Qubic tokens. According to the project, mining Qubic is currently more profitable than mining Monero.
Ivancheglo, who is also the founder of the crypto projects NXT and Iota, publicly acknowledged that his operation is attempting to take over the Monero network. In a post on the X platform, he stated that after gaining control of the majority of the network's hash power, his mining pool would reject blocks mined by other pools, effectively centralizing the network to a single pool.
Chernykh stated that Monero should redirect its hash power to P2Pool or smaller mining pools. He emphasized, "The fact that two or three mining pools control most of the hash power has been a long-standing issue for Monero."
Monero's P2Pool is a decentralized mining pool that allows miners to collaborate without relying on a central server. It has no operators and no single point of failure, with each miner running a full node.
Related: The Lugano City Government Successfully Reclaims Iconic Satoshi Statue
Original article: “Monero Takeover Plan Stalled by Suspected DDoS Attack on Qubic Mining Pool”
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