- Ethereum Classic Labs proposes MESS as a solution to 51% attacks.
- The blockchain has suffered about three attacks since this year.
- MESS will prevent 51% attacks by treating large block reorgs as suspect, making them too costly.
The development team behind Ethereum Classic (ETC) blockchain may have found a workable solution that will prevent further 51% percent attacks against the network. ETC Labs tested the new solution dubbed Modified Exponential Subjective Scoring (MESS), deeming it a successful proof of such attack. Since this year, the ETC blockchain has suffered three 51% attacks.
Ethereum Classic proposes MESS as the end to ETC 51% attacks
In an announcement published on Friday, the ETC Core Developer Team and the ETC Labs introduced the MESS solution, saying it is an effective finality system that will block 51% attacks from occurring on the network. Having tested the new solution, the team revealed that MESS will available on September 28. The development today is perhaps a milestone for the ETC community, as MESS is expected to return almsot everything to normalcy.
The Founder and Chairman of ETC Labs, James Wo, said:
MESS will enable exchanges to safely reduce confirmation times and ensure that miners will not lose block rewards; stabilizing the network and allowing it to return to growth.
MESS was reportedly developed by one of ETC’s Core Protocol Lead and Client Developer, Isaac A., in collaboration with OpenRelay and ChainSafe. They explained that the new solution will be able to resist 51% attacks by treating large block reorgs as suspect and also ensure that they will be highly expensive. By so doing, the large block reorgs used in perpetrating the attacks will have “significantly greater difficulty and common ancestor time.”
For example with MESS implemented, the recent attacks in August would have needed more than 155T/H sustained over many hours in order to be successful, costing approximately $20M.
Ethereum Classic blockchain has suffered three 51% attacks
The solution proposed today is coming in response to the multiple attacks launched against the Ethereum Classic blockchain whereby, a miner (s) possessed more than 50 percent of the network’s mining hash rate. The blockchain reportedly suffered three 51% attacks this year.
After the second attack, the team hired CipherTrace to help with the investigation. However, the miners could still pull another attack towards the end of August, despite the security measures adopted at that time.
Hopefully, the MESS solution will viably put an end to the attack going forward.
