ccn.com
Contradicting reports from the Ethereum Classic camp, cryptocurrency exchange giant Coinbase announced this afternoon that the apparent ETC blockchain reorganization attack had been accompanied by around half a million dollars in double spends.
According to Coinbase, the firm first identified the deep chain reorganization on Jan. 5, at which point it halted on-chain ETC payments to protect customers — and the crypto exchange itself — from falling prey to a double spend attack.
On 1/5/2019, Coinbase detected a deep chain reorganization of the Ethereum Classic blockchain that included a double spend. In order to protect customer funds, we immediately paused movements of these funds on the ETC blockchain. Read more here: https://t.co/vCx89dz44m
— Coinbase (@coinbase) January 7, 2019
From the post:
On 1/5/2019, Coinbase detected a deep chain reorganization of the Ethereum Classic blockchain that included a double spend. In order to protect customer funds, we immediately paused movements of these funds on the ETC blockchain.
Notably, this was not a one-time event. Indeed, the attacks are apparently ongoing, but as of the time of writing at 3:15 pm ET, Coinbase said that it had identified at least nine reorganizations containing double spends. Altogether, these double spends amounted to 88,500 ETC or about $460,000 at current prices.
The firm wrote:
We observed repeated deep reorganizations of the Ethereum Classic blockchain, most of which contained double spends. The total value of the double spends that we have observed thus far is 88,500 ETC (~$460,000).
Coinbase stressed that while it had identified the double spends, it had not been the target of these attacks and that all customer funds remained secure. At present, it is unclear who the attackers targeted.
CCN previously reported that the Ethereum Classic might have been the target of a successful 51 percent attack, though the project’s official Twitter account attributed the blockchain reorganization to a crypto mining manufacturer testing a new batch of ETC mining rigs and claimed that no double spends had been identified.
Ethereum Classic responded to the Coinbase announcement in a tweet, stating that the investigation is an “ongoing process” and that the crypto exchange had not shared its findings with ETC personnel prior to going public.
Regarding @coinbase account of recent events: they allegedly detected double spends but unfortunately did not connect with ETC personnel regarding the attack.
This is still very much an ongoing process. https://t.co/in1OGdV8T9— Ethereum Classic (@eth_classic) January 7, 2019
Developing…Check back for updates.
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