Bitcoin’s (BTC) price closed the month down 1.98%, which, according to data from Bybit, was its first negative close in April since 2015. In the same month, Ether’s (ETH) price soared over 44% to hit a new all-time high close to $3,000. This wide divergence between the top two cryptocurrencies shows that the markets have matured and Bitcoin’s underperformance is not affecting altcoins as much as it did in the past. Ether’s bullish trend has attracted strong buying from traders. Data from Bybit suggests that Ether futures open interest climbed to $8.5 billion on Thursday, rising 52% over the previous …

It’s undeniable that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are currently the two most dominant cryptocurrencies, and as a result, they receive most of the attention from the mainstream media, institutional investors and retail investors, but this doesn't mean that the sector leaders are not occasionally challenged by competitor networks. Two forked projects that once sought to challenge Bitcoin and Ethereum for their seats at the top are Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). In the past week, both coins have demonstrated that they are still capable of generating excitement and producing big gains. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView …

Ethereum Classic (ETC) is planning to execute the Thanos hard fork, an upgrade that would ensure several more years of mining functionality for graphics cards with 4 gigabytes of RAM. The upgrade, scheduled for block 11,700,000 — set to be mined between Nov. 28 and Nov. 29 — will roll back the epoch parameter for Ethereum Classic’s mining algorithm, Ethash. Ethash features a set of precomputed data used during the mining process, called DAG. The data set grows at a rate of about one gigabyte every 18 months, and is currently very close to reaching 4 GB. This poses a …

Over the past weekend, on block 11380000, a solution for the prevention of 51% attacks was introduced to the Ethereum Classic (ETC) community. Several such attacks have recently placed ETC at a crossroads, leaving the very survival of the chain uncertain. In the weeks that followed these attacks, the community worked to evaluate numerous potential solutions. The first one that has been implemented is called MESS, which stands for Modified Exponential Subjective Scoring. Its predecessor was first suggested by Vitalik Buterin back in 2014. It builds on the assumption that while small chain reorganizations that go back a few blocks …

As it grapples with multiple security breaches, Ethereum Classic Labs has partnered with ChainSafe and OpenRelay in hopes of increasing its defenses against 51% attacks. In a post, Ethereum Classic and its Core Dev Team will work with both ChainSafe and OpenRelay to develop and test security responses. James Wo, founder and chairman of Ethereum Classic Labs, said the partnership makes sense: “OpenRelay and ChainSafe are both well acquainted with Ethereum Classic, through working together, will have some of the most brilliant minds in blockchain tackling the 51% problem in tandem. The team-up will bring additional expertise in Proof-of-Work security …

The recent 51% attacks on Ethereum Classic (ETC) have raised fresh questions about the security of proof-of-work blockchains. Not only has ETC been attacked three times within a month, but these assaults have been enabled with rented hashrate power. One of these attacks cost OKEx $5.6 million as it paid out its customers in full. The major cryptocurrency exchange then threatened to delist Ethereum Classic if it doesn’t improve its security soon. Some questions being asked last week were: Is this problem unique to Ethereum Classic, or are all PoW blockchains vulnerable? Would regulating hashrate rental firms help? If not, …

Ethereum Classic Labs, the entity behind the Ethereum Classic (ETC) asset, and blockchain analysis outfit Chainalysis have joined forces. Aside from its work on ETC-related technology, ETC Labs also operates an accelerator wing for backing and helping startups in the crypto industry. Thanks to an alliance with Chainalysis, these startups can get a discount on the company's Know Your Transaction, or KYT, technology, and its training certification platform, a Sept. 9 statement from ETC Labs detailed. Additionally, entities under ETC Labs can receive regulatory guidance from the Chainalysis team. Regulatory requirements have become a growing concern in the crypto and …

Earlier today, Dexaran presented its solution (based on PirlGuard's framework) to the Ethereum Classic (ETC) community aimed at preventing future 51% attacks. The presentation came a week after Cardano’s IOHK introduced its checkpointing proposal. Dexaran notably used IOHK’s Crowdcast channel for its competing solution. This new proposal is founded on the assumption that many 51% attacks involve so-called "stealth mining", where an attacker, in isolation, would secretly mine a longer fork of the chain. This technique was used in a recent attack on the ETC, which cost OKEx $5.6 million. The proposal hinges on the premise that a well-intended miner …

Earlier today, IOHK presented its checkpointing proposal to the Ethereum Classic (ETC) community. This is meant as a short-term solution for preventing future 51% attacks. In the past several weeks, the network has suffered a number of such attacks, which has cast doubt on ETC’s future. One of these attacks cost OKEx $5.6 million. In the wake of these problems, several exchanges increased validation times for ETC transactions. Checkpointing consensus. Source: IOHK presentation. As its name would imply, the solution proposes the introduction of checkpoints that would validate the network. Thus if an adversary were to mine a “shadow” network …

Responding to numerous 51% attacks on the Ethereum Classic blockchain, ETC Labs said that it's time to bring regulation to hashpower rental marketplaces, citing the fact that at least two of the attacks were perpetrated by renting hash power through NiceHash — a claim that has been confirmed by both NiceHash and ETC Labs. ETC Labs CEO Terry Culver also shared with Cointelegraph that according to the information that was provided by CipherTrace, which was hired to investigate the attacks, the attackers used proceeds from the first attack to rent hashpower for the second attack. The latter cost crypto exchange …

Charles Hoskinson's IOHK recently published two Ethereum Classic Improvement Proposals, or ECIPs, meant to help the struggling chain recover after a slew of recent 51% attacks. The first introduced a checkpoint system to prevent the possibility of such attacks, and the second proposed a decentralized treasury — a seemingly divisive idea within the ETC community. Following the recent attacks, a heated debate ensued concerning the project's future. Hoskinson, one of Ethereum's co-founders and a supporter of the ETC fork, believes that the way forward revolves around the institution of the decentralized treasury. The proposal suggests that the current method of …

Ethereum Classic (ETC) accelerator Ethereum Classic Labs announced a plan to protect the blockchain from further attacks. On Aug. 19 the organization proposed taking immediate action in implementing long-term changes to the network architecture over the next three to six months. The accelerator decided to focus their efforts on improving the network’s security after recent attacks on the blockchain. The immediate measures proposed by Ethereum Classic Labs include a “defensive mining” cooperation with mining pools and miners to maintain a consistent hashrate and gain the ability to increase it when needed. A higher hashrate would render a 51% attack against …