Explore Monero’s FCMP Upgrade Strategy to Mitigate 51% Attack Recovery
This week, developers of Monero (XMR crypto) have worked to alleviate concerns regarding a possible 51% attack associated with the Qubic block rewards pool. While it’s still unverified if Qubic ever possessed a majority of 
XMR ▲0.31% mining power, the mere allegation was sufficient to shake the community.
“Qubic merely illustrated the potential risks,” stated Joel Valenzuela, a core member of Dash DAO. “Better-capitalized and more motivated entities could create significantly greater turmoil. It’s a matter of ‘evolve or perish.’”
This panic briefly drove the XMR price down to $233 on August 16, only to recover above $250, alongside the broader market. Should this alarm you?
What Is the Full-Chain Membership Proofs (FCMP) Monero Upgrade?
Monero has confirmed that its Full-Chain Membership Proofs (FCMP) upgrade is progressing quickly, with a testnet launch anticipated shortly. FCMP is viewed as a direct countermeasure to fears of 51% attacks and represents a significant advancement for Monero’s privacy framework.
This upgrade promises two essential improvements:
- Zero-knowledge proofs that allow for transaction validation without disclosing amounts or identities.
- Performance enhancements, decreasing cryptographic proof times for multi-input transactions from over 5 minutes to approximately 1 minute.
The Qubic incident reignited discussions regarding Monero’s dependency on proof-of-work (PoW).
Successful PoW currencies secure their integrity by dominating their mining segment. Bitcoin is the SHA-256 coin, while Ethereum represents the GPU coin. The excessive fees effectively served to uphold Ethereum as the leading GPU crypto token with a substantial safety budget.
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Conversely, Monero carved out the CPU niche but chose not to capitalize on it too aggressively. The hashrate could have been significantly higher if there had been a more avaricious approach to miner incentives. More dedicated miners could have emerged, limiting Qubic’s capacity to operate as it currently does. Rather than promoting a circular economy, Monero may have benefitted from a more appealing Swiss bank account metaphor.
Some members and developers from the community are now advocating for a combined model, integrating PoW with alternative methods.
Luke Parker, a Monero developer, has proposed looking into hybrid solutions.
However, some developers like Valenzuela are uncertain: “The community is likely divided 50/50 on this matter.”
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Is a Hybrid Consensus Model the Future for XMR Crypto? Data Examination: The Economics Behind a 51% Attack
Understanding the reasons why the Qubic incident raised alarms aids in analyzing the data.
Proof-of-work inherently carries risks. Capturing 51% of the computational power grants the authority to rewrite the chain and initiate double-spending at will.
Monero endeavored to prevent mining centralization by adopting the CPU-optimized RandomX algorithm, excluding ASICs from the equation. However, this transition has drawbacks: it simplifies the process for an adversary to rent extensive computing resources or commandeer botnets, a feat much trickier within Bitcoin’s ASIC-dominated ecosystem.
The debate surrounding hybrid consensus unveils a broader challenge. Monero faces the choice of either maintaining its proof-of-work integrity or embracing alternative frameworks to better combat emerging threats.
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Key Takeaways
- This week, Monero developers took steps to alleviate concerns surrounding a potential 51% attack associated with the Qubic crypto mining pool.
- Some developers and community participants are advocating for a hybrid model combining PoW with other mechanisms.
The post Look Inside Monero’s FCMP Upgrade Plan to Recover From 51% Attack appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
