‘Please, do not resist’: Qubic hash grab worries Monero maxis

Self-described “decentralized compute and AI Layer 1 protocol” Qubic has the Monero community worried.

In what’s being described as an “economic attack,” Qubic is offering higher rates, paid in its own token, to XMR miners willing to join its pool.

As its share of the total hashrate climbs, the privacy-focused community feels threatened by this seemingly parasitic relationship, and its potential to cause a breakdown in the network’s security model.

Read more: No, Monero’s privacy didn’t suddenly break in this viral video

In a much-shared post on X, an Unstoppable Wallet researcher going by the handle “@ddadybayo” detailed the “attack,” stating that Qubic is “creating conditions where miners voluntarily surrender the network.”

The incentive mechanism that Qubic uses to accumulate hash rate relies on paying miners in QUBIC tokens then selling the mined XMR to buy-back and burn QUBIC, pumping its price.

The increased value draws in more miners; rinse and repeat.

Qubic’s share of the Monero network’s total hashrate currently sits at 25%, according to data from MiningPoolStats, and is up from 21% less than two weeks ago.

At 51% of hash power, a pool could theoretically orphan blocks (to punish non-Qubic miners), manipulate transactions or even force protocol changes.

Previously, miners would self-limit their overall hash power in order to maintain confidence in the network.

These actions would, of course, destroy confidence in the XMR protocol and miners have avoided accumulating elevated shares of hash power in the past. This time, though, some fear that Qubic doesn’t have “a vesting [sic] interest in Monero itself. Qubic is like a predator: if it kills its prey, it will simply switch to another one.”

While some may be concerned about a “vampire attack” on the network, others may simply be worried about their bags; the constant selling of XMR for QUBIC could lead to a collapse in Monero’s token.

Despite the rapid accumulation of XMR hashpower, QUBIC’s token price remains down over 80% from its all-time-high set in March last year.

Qubic’s founder, Sergey Ivancheglo (a.k.a. CFB) insists he’s “trying to find a countermeasure to Qubic’s 51% domination.”

Ivancheglo feels this is for the greater good in the case of a “non-benevolent attack,” despite also suggesting that Qubic will soon stop reporting their hashrate to network monitoring dashboards.

He also seems open about his plans for “51% domination” and calls those worried about XMR “fear-mongers who want to buy cheap XMR”. He also accuses “Monero botnet masters” of DDoS-ing the Qubic pool.

“Please, do not resist”, he adds.

Qubic’s docs paint their efforts in a different light, however. They describe their mining pool as an improvement to the wasteful nature of traditional blockchain mechanics, not an invading force.

Their useful proof of work (UPoW) system is designed for “processing large datasets or training machine learning models,” rather than solving arbitrary mathematical puzzles.

“The work done by the Computors isn’t just for maintaining network security but also contributes to real-world applications and services.”

Read more: Did law enforcement in Finland crack Monero’s privacy technologies?

Are other networks at risk?

Some have signalled that Monero’s current predicament could be a foreshadowing of a potential “purely economic attack” that may face Bitcoin in years to come, urging the community to learn from these “key insights into economic incentive troubles.”

Ethereum community members have pointed out that, under a proof of stake model, “social consensus can slash stake, it can’t slash [PoW] mining rigs.”

Any validator attempting to take over the network would lose out financially, a safeguard not present in PoW systems. As ETH maxi Anthony Sassano puts it: “Economic security is real and it’s why Ethereum has optimized for it.”