WARNING: Potential 51% attack on Litecoin by GHash

[Kalizar]

Myself, and many miners switched over to GHash.IO for the double mining reward promotion.

If you look at GHash's hashrates from less than 12 hours ago, you can see it was 500 MH/s total for the pool. As of right now it is over 33,000 MH/s. This is increasing very fast considering the promotion was just announced earlier today (around the time the hashrate started spiking up).

The entire Litecoin mining network is clocked at 168,000 MH/s. Being over 84,000 MH/s leaves it susceptible to 51% attack. Being at 33,000 / 84,000 required within a 12 hour span is insane.

Keep in mind this is the same service provider that became very close to 51% attacking Bitcoin back in January. There is still a little over 6 days in the promotion and I'm sure the miners will switch to GHash after hearing about it due to the scarce alt coin market.

[ocminer]

I dont think anyone cares if they have 50 or 80 or even 90 % of the network when they pay double payouts

For me, as a pool op, its hard to compete with a pool which actually pays its miners 100% more than what they mine..

If someone which usually mines 10 LTC a day thats around 160 $, I'd have to pay him 160 $ A DAY for mining with me ?
Where comes this money from 100 % fee a few days earlier ?

Mine where you like, I'd also mine there where someone pays me double rewards, I'm just not sure where the money comes from, but, as you see, who cares

[Kalizar]

I dont think anyone cares if they have 50 or 80 or even 90 % of the network when they pay double payouts

For me, as a pool op, its hard to compete with a pool which actually pays its miners 100% more than what they mine..

If someone which usually mines 10 LTC a day thats around 160 $, I'd have to pay him 160 $ A DAY for mining with me ?
Where comes this money from 100 % fee a few days earlier ?

Mine where you like, I'd also mine there where someone pays me double rewards, I'm just not sure where the money comes from, but, as you see, who cares

They did this promotion out of the blue, which offers little time to speculate. The only plausible gain I can see is executing an attack on the blockchain.

Afterward successfully doing that, it's game over for LTC.

[bigblind]

its a wandering scrypt mining farm - about 20 ghash, which has lately been on wafflepool

[Evilish]

I dont think anyone cares if they have 50 or 80 or even 90 % of the network when they pay double payouts

For me, as a pool op, its hard to compete with a pool which actually pays its miners 100% more than what they mine..

If someone which usually mines 10 LTC a day thats around 160 $, I'd have to pay him 160 $ A DAY for mining with me ?
Where comes this money from 100 % fee a few days earlier ?

Mine where you like, I'd also mine there where someone pays me double rewards, I'm just not sure where the money comes from, but, as you see, who cares

Do they actually pay double or was it just a false advertisement? It's very hard to believe.

[ocminer]

its a wandering scrypt mining farm - about 20 ghash, which has lately been on wafflepool

20 Ghash in scrypt ? 

That must be lots of GPU's... A pity they dont mine on https://www.ltcbox.net .. I'd really love to had them for a stress test in there..

[Kalizar]

I have been mining on it for almost exactly 12 hours and have just a little over 1 LTC with a 2.7 MH/s average.

I have just been sitting here watching the pool's hashrate go up. From .5 GH/s to 36 GH/s (22% network hashrate) within 12 hours.

[bigblind]

its a wandering scrypt mining farm - about 20 ghash, which has lately been on wafflepool

20 Ghash in scrypt ? 

That must be lots of GPU's... A pity they dont mine on https://www.ltcbox.net .. I'd really love to had them for a stress test in there..

i can't tell what kind of farm exactly (gpu/maybe asic). but i saw it growing on middlecoin from 180mhs to about 5Ghs and then switched over to waffle where it grew on and on..

[ocminer]

its a wandering scrypt mining farm - about 20 ghash, which has lately been on wafflepool

20 Ghash in scrypt ? 

That must be lots of GPU's... A pity they dont mine on https://www.ltcbox.net .. I'd really love to had them for a stress test in there..

i can't tell what kind of farm exactly (gpu/maybe asic). but i saw it growing on middlecoin from 180mhs to about 5Ghs and then switched over to waffle where it grew on and on..

If GPU, power costs and even power usage must be insane.. I'd really like to see that

[bigblind]

its a wandering scrypt mining farm - about 20 ghash, which has lately been on wafflepool

20 Ghash in scrypt ? 

That must be lots of GPU's... A pity they dont mine on https://www.ltcbox.net .. I'd really love to had them for a stress test in there..

i can't tell what kind of farm exactly (gpu/maybe asic). but i saw it growing on middlecoin from 180mhs to about 5Ghs and then switched over to waffle where it grew on and on..

If GPU, power costs and even power usage must be insane.. I'd really like to see that

then you should do a 2,5 times LTC Promo 

[ocminer]

its a wandering scrypt mining farm - about 20 ghash, which has lately been on wafflepool

20 Ghash in scrypt ? 

That must be lots of GPU's... A pity they dont mine on https://www.ltcbox.net .. I'd really love to had them for a stress test in there..

i can't tell what kind of farm exactly (gpu/maybe asic). but i saw it growing on middlecoin from 180mhs to about 5Ghs and then switched over to waffle where it grew on and on..

If GPU, power costs and even power usage must be insane.. I'd really like to see that

then you should do a 2,5 times LTC Promo 

I must be doing something wrong.. I'd really love to have so much money or LTC/BTC that I can gift it to someone mining with my pool, but I doubt this time will come :-/

Well.. we'll see how it goes out, it's really something to think about.

[ocminer]

I have been mining on it for almost exactly 12 hours and have just a little over 1 LTC with a 2.7 MH/s average.

I have just been sitting here watching the pool's hashrate go up. From .5 GH/s to 36 GH/s (22% network hashrate) within 12 hours.

Hmm, I just threw some numbers in my brain concerning this..

so 1 LTC in 12h with 2.7MH/s.. Thats 10 LTC in 12h with 27MH/s and 100 LTC in 12h with 270MH/s and 1000 LTC in 12h with 27 GH/s

So if I understand correctly.. They have almost 40 GH/s now.. Thats roughly 1700 LTC in 12h or 3400 in 24h.

They do this promo for six more days which gives:

6 * 3400 LTC = 20.400 LTC

20.400 LTC * 16 $ = 326.400 $

So they spend 326.000 $ AS A PROMO WTF ??!?! Are they cooperating with Coca-Cola or so ??

[Kalizar]

I have been mining on it for almost exactly 12 hours and have just a little over 1 LTC with a 2.7 MH/s average.

I have just been sitting here watching the pool's hashrate go up. From .5 GH/s to 36 GH/s (22% network hashrate) within 12 hours.

Hmm, I just threw some numbers in my brain concerning this..

so 1 LTC in 12h with 2.7MH/s.. Thats 10 LTC in 12h with 27MH/s and 100 LTC in 12h with 270MH/s and 1000 LTC in 12h with 27 GH/s

So if I understand correctly.. They have almost 40 GH/s now.. Thats roughly 1700 LTC in 12h or 3400 in 24h.

They do this promo for six more days which gives:

6 * 3400 LTC = 20.400 LTC

20.400 LTC * 16 $ = 326.400 $

So they spend 326.000 $ AS A PROMO WTF ??!?! Are they cooperating Coca-Cola or so ??

That is why I am kind of wary. Yes, I am enjoying the mining profits, but I don't want the pool to get too large and devalue LTC.

It's a smart promotion, but I would assume 90%+ miners will leave afterwards leaving little pool fees generated to make up for the investment. However, if they wanted to quickly gather up as much hashrate as possible to perform a 51% attack, that is a whole different scenario. Then who knows what they have planned.

Like I said, this is the same pool service that almost reached 51% on BTC. Since it was climbing steadily, the community became aware and decentralized to other pools.

This pool just went 0-25% in 12 hours and they didn't even announce the promotion beforehand. This rapid increase towards 51% and the little time given to the community could allow them to execute the attack before any speculations are made.

[bigblind]

but they haven't done anything like 51% in history before, did they? It's just speculation that they MIGHT be able to use it?

but I do also think, that many many miners on other LTC Pools will switch to try to benefit - even more when diff is rising again and the normal payout will be even lower than usual. ghash.io hasn't reached its spike yet.

[Kalizar]

but they haven't done anything like 51% in history before, did they? It's just speculation that they MIGHT be able to use it?

but I do also think, that many many miners on other LTC Pools will switch to try to benefit - even more when diff is rising again and the normal payout will be even lower than usual. ghash.io hasn't reached its spike yet.

I don't think anyone has, but I do know GHash was in the spotlight for a while with their BTC pool almost breaching 51% back in January.

I would consider going from 0-25% network hash rate within 12 hours is a dramatic spike. One more and it could be game over for LTC.

The fact they came this close before seems to me they just have a better plan this time.

[ahmed_bodi]

I'm not completely sure. But I think they had something to do with satosji dice. And also greedy mining. Not mining transactions without fees

[ocminer]

If you want something to laugh:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=515201.0

:-)

[haploid23]

I'd also mine there where someone pays me double rewards, I'm just not sure where the money comes from, but, as you see, who cares

Blinded by greed. If I held a lollipop in front of you and lured you into a white van, would you go? Consequences... who cares, as long as you get the lollipop, right? Do you think for a second they'll be able to pay every miner of that 33gh/s? If they made it 5000% instead of 200%, would you believe that too?

But lets assume for the best, and you do get your 200% profit for a few days. They end up having enough hash power to execute a 51% attack, making your 200% LTC actually be worth... zero.

[Hotsauce]

Hmm, I just threw some numbers in my brain concerning this..

so 1 LTC in 12h with 2.7MH/s.. Thats 10 LTC in 12h with 27MH/s and 100 LTC in 12h with 270MH/s and 1000 LTC in 12h with 27 GH/s

So if I understand correctly.. They have almost 40 GH/s now.. Thats roughly 1700 LTC in 12h or 3400 in 24h.

They do this promo for six more days which gives:

6 * 3400 LTC = 20.400 LTC

20.400 LTC * 16 $ = 326.400 $

So they spend 326.000 $ AS A PROMO WTF ??!?! Are they cooperating with Coca-Cola or so ??

You need to remember, CEX is the company behind this. They have become massive. $ 326,000 is nothing but advertising/marketing costs to them... there's no way pool operators can compete when companies this large get involved.

Also, in saying that, I highly doubt GHash/CEX will execute a 51% attack on LTC. It would destroy their reputation and they would end up losing millions, Bitcoin commodities are far more profitable in the long run than taking over the LTC network for a brief amount of time...

[Wipeout2097]

I was curious and decided to point some hash there.

Doubled rewards for LiteCoin mining ends in  [6 days, 33 minutes, and 54 seconds]

To prevent getting 51% of the Litecoin network, the reward multiplier will be adjusted according to the pool speed. Current multiplier: x1.25.

Pool Speed    Reward multiplier
0 – 40 GH/s    x2
40 – 60 GH/s    x1.25
60+ GH/s    x1

So that's how they weasel out of the promised double rewards. More arbitrary bullshit ...