Coinbase says Zcash dangers 51% amid ViaBTC management

• ViaBTC controls greater than 51% of Zcash hashrate, Coinbase stated in a report.
• The mining pool’s management of over half of hashrate poses threat of a 51% for the Zcash community.
• Coinbase has taken measures to guard customers, together with growing Zcash affirmation threshold to 110 blocks.

A report by the Coinbase safety crew claims that the community hashrate distribution for proof-of-work cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) is considerably imbalanced. Particularly, greater than 51% of the hash energy distribution is managed by a single mining pool – ViaBTC.

Danger of 51% assault

Coinbase stated in a weblog put up immediately that following the commentary, its crew moved to attempt to mitigate potential dangers by setting up a number of measures. With centralisation dangers more likely to emerge from this – a 51% assault on this case – the US-based firm stated it had elevated Zcash transaction affirmation threshold to 110 blocks.

The rise means Zcash deposit time will increase from about 40 minutes to 2.5 hours, with this meant to cut back the danger of community manipulation when it comes to transaction double-spend or fraud.

Coinbase has additionally moved the Zcash markets “limit-only” as a part of decreasing potential impression of volatility. The change has additionally reportedly engaged each ViaBTC and Electrical Coin Firm, the developer group behind Zcash because it advocates for a extra decentralised mining distribution for ZEC.

“We shared our considerations across the dangers of mining centralization and offered suggestions for varied choices that both social gathering might implement to cut back the danger of a 51% assault,” Coinbase’ safety crew wrote.

Zcash developer ECC acknowledged the considerations raised by Coinbase, confirming discussions had been undertaken. 

ECC is conscious of this challenge, and we’ve had conversations with @coinbase, @ViaBTC, Zcash’s safety lead, and @ZcashCommGrants. IMPORTANT: #Zcash is a decentralized, open-source community with no “lead developer,” no “issuer,” and no org that controls it. 🧵 https://t.co/X2a16x4xDQ

— Electrical Coin Co. (@ElectricCoinCo) September 19, 2023

A 51% assault in PoW blockchains can happen when greater than 50% of the community’s computational energy (hashrate) falls beneath the management of a single miner or mining pool. On this case, the entity can leverage the hash energy to execute double-spend assaults or censor transactions in what might lead to lack of person or change funds.

A number of the high 51% assaults to occur within the crypto house embrace Ethereum Basic, Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Gold, Verge and Vertcoin. 

ECC plans to maneuver Zcash to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, a feat that Ethereum achieved with its Merge milestone in September 2022.

Transferring Zcash to proof of stake is one in all 4 key focus areas for ECC, and @nate_zec is devoted full-time to PoS R&D with important assist from @feministPLT.

— Electrical Coin Co. (@ElectricCoinCo) September 19, 2023