It feels surprisingly cheap.
Take bitcoin, a 105Billion cap can be subverted for just 700K per hour?
Not to mention DeepOnion for 3 bucks an hour. I can see people do that just for lulz.
Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
21–30 of 134 posts
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#22$705k per hour for Bitcoin - these numbers sound very expensive. Do they take into account that during an attack the attacker will earn block rewards and transaction fees? Because if not, then they vastly overestimate the costs. This sounds like it is based on the some energy price that would be needed to do 51% of Bitcoins hashing. Doing so could very well be profitable. The reason it would be hard to do is that the…
For me, the numbers feel surprisingly "affordable". Is this list even correct?
I am not talking about my own pocket, but rich people or powerful entities. This is the cost of a military drone or something.
Imagine a nation adopting Bitcoin then another nation taking over that infrastructure.
We are talking about controlling the entire Bitcoin universe, everyone has to accept what the attacker considers "correct"
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#23$705k per hour for Bitcoin - these numbers sound very expensive. Do they take into account that during an attack the attacker will earn block rewards and transaction fees? Because if not, then they vastly overestimate the costs. This sounds like it is based on the some energy price that would be needed to do 51% of Bitcoins hashing. Doing so could very well be profitable. The reason it would be hard to do is that the…
I was actually shocked that it could be this low and thought it must be wrong. Other sources have suggested it would cost over $1B:
https://u.today/guides/blockchain/bitcoin-51-attack-how-it-w...
> The hash rate is currently about six exahashes per seconds. Considering the most efficient ASIC miner with a hash rate of about 13,000 GHS (using the SHA-256 algorithm) being sold for about $2,100, an attacker will require about 500,000 hardware units and this will amount to about $1,005,000,000. When we factor in the cost of electricity and cooling daily, this figure rises to $1,006,000,000.
https://cryptoslate.com/analysis-bitcoin-costs-1-4-billion-t...
> To successfully conduct a 51 percent attack on the Bitcoin network would cost an incredible $1.4 billion. This massive network supports over 5 million specialized ASIC mining computers, consuming a total of 29 Terawatt hours of electricity a year—as much as the entire country of Morocco. One of the underpinnings of the Bitcoin network is...
https://gobitcoin.io/tools/cost-51-attack/
> $17,562,078,097, Hardware cost only, at cheapest rate. The attack would consume 241,478,573.839 kWh per day. (12,073,928.692$ per day)
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#24$705k per hour for Bitcoin - these numbers sound very expensive. Do they take into account that during an attack the attacker will earn block rewards and transaction fees? Because if not, then they vastly overestimate the costs. This sounds like it is based on the some energy price that would be needed to do 51% of Bitcoins hashing. Doing so could very well be profitable. The reason it would be hard to do is that the…
If you follow the 'about' link, it explains that any mining rewards are _not_ included, and that including them would reduce the cost 'somewhere around 80%' (not sure where that number is derived from but it sounds plausible).
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#25Can someone ELI5 how these numbers fit together? It costs me $3/hr to 51% DeepOnion, which has a market cap of $1.95M. In practical terms, what does that mean?
The market cap does not fit into the equation on how an attack works ; it just gives you idea on how big/small is this blockchain
Blockchain don't have a centralized entity to "validate" and secure each transaction, so had to come with a solution to securely do so in a decentralized manner... Most blockchain use Proof of Work to do so : to participate on the validation process you have to "pay", by working on some mathematical problem... If you control more than 50% of the working power you can "control" the validation process...
In the case of DeepOnion, it costs $3 to buy enough computer power to control the validation process for one hour(by controlling more than 50% of the working power). You can use it to rewrite some transaction, and spend 2 times the same crypto.
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#26It feels surprisingly cheap. Take bitcoin, a 105Billion cap can be subverted for just 700K per hour? Not to mention DeepOnion for 3 bucks an hour. I can see people do that just for lulz.
The issue with saying how much a 51% attack "costs" is that ALL cryptocurrencies (and, really, ANY currency) is just based on the trust that the currency has "value", meaning that it would be accepted as payment for real goods and services.
A 51% attack on bitcoin would be easily noticeable. If a 51% attack was really "viable", it means that essentially bitcoin would have $0 value, because all of its value is based on the trust that the blockchain is real and verified. The community at large would essentially just ignore the rogue chain, or rather probably boost other existing resources to back it out.
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#27$705k per hour for Bitcoin - these numbers sound very expensive. Do they take into account that during an attack the attacker will earn block rewards and transaction fees? Because if not, then they vastly overestimate the costs. This sounds like it is based on the some energy price that would be needed to do 51% of Bitcoins hashing. Doing so could very well be profitable. The reason it would be hard to do is that the…
I was actually shocked that it could be this low and thought it must be wrong. Other sources have suggested it would cost over $1B: https://u.today/guides/blockchain/bitcoin-51-attack-how-it-w... > The hash rate is currently about six exahashes per seconds. Considering the most efficient ASIC miner with a hash rate of about 13,000 GHS (using the SHA-256 algorithm) being sold for about $2,100, an attacker will require…
I agree, it feels way too cheap to be true.
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#28Since it took a while for me to understand this. A 51% attack doesn’t let you steal money from anyone. It essentially lets you block all transactions from making it to the blockchain. Nodes will still verify all transactions and ignore transactions that are invalid. Edit: you can also create multiple forks and switch between them. External viewers will see both forks and if they don’t or can’t handle the difference t…
A presumably legal and profitable 51% attack can be to simply ignore other miners. Effectively someone with 45% hashing power get’s 45% of the block rewards + fees. However someone with 55% hash power can get 100% of the rewards plus fees a significant bonus. Alternatively, double spends let someone sell the same coins to multiple people though at legal risk for doing so while also theoretically collecting all block rewards.
However, the largest risk is from the software side. The physical owner of the hardware spends money, a hacker only spends their opportunity costs.
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#29Can someone ELI5 how these numbers fit together? It costs me $3/hr to 51% DeepOnion, which has a market cap of $1.95M. In practical terms, what does that mean?
The market cap does not fit into the equation on how an attack works ; it just gives you idea on how big/small is this blockchain Blockchain don't have a centralized entity to "validate" and secure each transaction, so had to come with a solution to securely do so in a decentralized manner... Most blockchain use Proof of Work to do so : to participate on the validation process you have to "pay", by working on some ma…
But if it costs only $3 to break the system, how come the market cap is so high?
Re: Cost of a 51% attack for different cryptocurrencies?
#30$705k per hour for Bitcoin - these numbers sound very expensive. Do they take into account that during an attack the attacker will earn block rewards and transaction fees? Because if not, then they vastly overestimate the costs. This sounds like it is based on the some energy price that would be needed to do 51% of Bitcoins hashing. Doing so could very well be profitable. The reason it would be hard to do is that the…
I was actually shocked that it could be this low and thought it must be wrong. Other sources have suggested it would cost over $1B: https://u.today/guides/blockchain/bitcoin-51-attack-how-it-w... > The hash rate is currently about six exahashes per seconds. Considering the most efficient ASIC miner with a hash rate of about 13,000 GHS (using the SHA-256 algorithm) being sold for about $2,100, an attacker will require…
The calculations you cite and what the linked page are fundamentally different. The numbers you're citing are roughly what it would cost to buy hardware that would continuously be capable of mounting a 51% attack. The linked site is estimating how much it would cost to rent existing capacity to mount an hour-long 51% attack.