Speaking on a Unitize digital conference panel about proof-of-work, or PoW, attacks, James Lovejoy of MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative, or DCI, said 51% attacks might not be evident, despite blockchain’s public nature. On the July 9 panel, Lovejoy described the viability of reorganizations across assets in the crypto space, given those assets’ various hash rates, the costs associated with attacks, and other factors.
By the time the market discovers foul play on a blockchain without a tracker, people may already have suffered effects, he said. Lovejoy explained that victims are often not super interested in revealing when an attack has taken place. Multiple 51% attacks have surfaced in recent years, plaguing projects such as Ethereum Classic and Bitcoin Gold, showing such nefarious behavior as far from impossible.
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