In a step forward to strengthen and secure its network against attacks, Ethereum Classic (ETC) has come up with a strategic security plan. The new network security plan of ETC, which has been the victim of attacks lately, involves taking immediate actions against attacks and making long-term changes.
Ethereum Classic is an open-source, decentralized blockchain platform. ETC’s security plan can be structured as follows:
- Immediate Actions
The public blockchain is considering taking several steps to prevent attacks, including:
- Adding new security layers to the network.
- Cooperating with miners and mining pools for defensive mining.
- Enhancing monitoring of blockchain network.
- Identifying fluctuations in hash rate.
- Coordinating with crypto exchanges to whitelist public addresses.
- Implementing ETC Core Team’s Permapoint finality arbitration system.
- Long-Term Changes
ETC is also planning to implement several long-term changes in the next 3–6 months by reaching community consensus, including:
- Maximizing resistance against 51% attack with PIRLGUARD or checkpointing.
- Substituting its proof-of-work mining algorithm with Keccak-256 and/or RandomX.
- Utilizing MINERVOTE for implementing changes.
- Introducing a treasury system.
In this proposal of ETC, increasing the attack resistance and changing the mining algorithm are more important measures, so it is worth considering.
51% Attack Resistance
By upgrading its network with PIRLGUARD, ETC is expecting an increase in resistance against 51% attack. The implementation of PIRLGUARD will propose blockchain branches to mine penalty blocks, the number of which will always be proportional to that of the original blocks.
With this protocol in action, attackers would need to double their efforts by adding penalty blocks, which would increase the cost of 51% attack and thus prevent them from publishing their private branch. Consequently, ETC will be able to revert all the transactions executed through the publicly mined blockchain branch.
ETC is also exploring ways to enhance its blockchain network with checkpointing and timestamping. Under this plan, a secure assisting service will be established to guarantee the ledger’s features and be used in situations where the hash rate is low.
Mining Algorithm
Another proposal from ETC is to replace its proof-of-work mining algorithm with a unique mining algorithm such as Ethereum’s Keccak-256 or Monero’s RandomX.
Of these, Keccak-256 is believed to be a much better option, for it would diminish ETC’s dependence on its Ethash-based sister blockchain, ultimately reducing the risk of attacks arising from a shared mining algorithm.
