The current level of security in PoS.

[Hamukione]

So, I was thinking..

It has been a while since I heard about a PoS coin getting attacked. (Or I might just be out of the loop)

Are PoS coins at a point where we can say they are "hack free" / "unexploitable"?

As an example, 51% attacks are only a thing on PoW coins.


Does anyone know of instances where a PoS coin was attacked or exploited by a vulnerability in their source code/blockchain logic?


 

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[asriloni]

So, I was thinking..

It has been a while since I heard about a PoS coin getting attacked. (Or I might just be out of the loop)

Are PoS coins at a point where we can say they are "hack free" / "unexploitable"?

As an example, 51% attacks are only a thing on PoW coins.


Does anyone know of instances where a PoS coin was attacked or exploited by a vulnerability in their source code/blockchain logic?


 

It happened once with NXT but that's about DDOS attack. I never heard even a single POS coin get was getting attacked caused by another than DDOS attack. I thought that you must read this article
https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/a-proof-of-stake-design-philosophy-506585978d51

There was no POS coin that has ever exploited through its source code or vulnerability on the blockchain.

[Little Mouse]

Is not it easy to have 51% attack in PoS coin? I have little idea about it, so I may be wrong. In PoS, person with more than 50% amount of total supply can occur such attack or not? If it is true, small cap coin can be easily manipulated. Am I right?

[Stanlo]

I rarely heard of any attack on POS coins, the Algorithm that sees DDOS Attack is Proof of work Algorithm, in this area of security proof of stake is far safer

[chip1994]

So, I was thinking..

It has been a while since I heard about a PoS coin getting attacked. (Or I might just be out of the loop)

Are PoS coins at a point where we can say they are "hack free" / "unexploitable"?

As an example, 51% attacks are only a thing on PoW coins.


Does anyone know of instances where a PoS coin was attacked or exploited by a vulnerability in their source code/blockchain logic?


 

At the present, it is not. PoS still works quite well at alts and there has never been any bad news about this algorithm being hacked. It seems like this is a way to earn safe and better profits than PoW. The more money you spend, the bigger the reward will be, not much different from PoW but you won't have to buy mining accessories. I encourage everyone to use this PoS method to save energy for the world and be safer.

[blockman]

I haven't heard that there's an attack with an altcoin with PoS consensus. There's this old thread that I have read related to this topic(https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4089785.0) and I think I have to quote the one post there.

Attacking a PoW network is not cheap, and one might end up spending more than he can steal.

The PoS algorithm needs better protection as it is cheaper to attack. The deposits of the validities serve as collateral, and if they go against the rules and create an invalid block, they will lose their deposit. Both are pretty much safe to be used.

But the PoS system still has the upper hand due to the collateral involved.

[LbtalkL]

I guess 51% attack is also possible on POS coins but it is easier on POW coins, PoS makes it simpler to penalize explicit actors in a 51% attack situation I think that is why no one does that on POS coins and they will be caught and punish specifically. This is on the grounds that PoS validators have moderately long-lived identities and PoW miners are changing their identities with each block and it is harder to trace them specifically.

[Balladtony77]

51% attack is possible on every available Algorithms, to be safe from this attacks I recommend a separate private blockchain and serious team, there are still many projects that aren't a victim to this attacks yet

[Ucy]

I guess 51% attack is also possible on POS coins but it is easier on POW coins, PoS makes it simpler to penalize explicit actors in a 51% attack situation I think that is why no one does that on POS coins and they will be caught and punish specifically. This is on the grounds that PoS validators have moderately long-lived identities and PoW miners are changing their identities with each block and it is harder to trace them specifically.

I think PoS could be attacked if I can secretly print fiat currencies without limit, for buying up PoS coins and at the same time preventing the coins from moving up in price.
How about if most people mines on centralized platforms?
And I have to have certain amount of coin in order to stake and participate in the network consensus.
Almost everyone can afford a phone and laptop for minimal PoW or something, but not every can afford the expensive amount for participating in PoS.. This alone should disqualify it. A reasonable community should make it possible for everyone to participate and still keep things very safe. Besides, phones and laptops are multiple purpose aside mining or participating in network consensus... this is really good thing.
PoS is also very vulnerable in my opinion.

[Review Master]

I don't think, it'll be easy to make a attack in pos system like 51% attack in pow. If there are some consensus who have more than 50% of total supply, than it might be a problem for that pos coins. Even it can collapse that pos system. But it won't happen if the team is honest in their works and keep updated with the newest POS consensus era.

[sorryforthat]

There have been numerous exploits on POS coins. Most notable are the "Fake Stake Attacks" and "Spend Stake Attacks." These have been carried out on numerous chains. A while back PIVX was subject to these attacks. Any coin that was forked from PIVX was also at risk, which is a good portion of POS coins. At one point, a few years ago, they claimed to fix the exploit only to be proven wrong by Bitgreen devs (Jan 2019 I believe) who continued to observe Fake Stake Attacks on their chain. While these issues have largely been addressed, I am sure there are numerous coins who are still using old PIVX code that of which are at risk. But there is likely no monetary reason for anyone to waste the time on all of those other chains.

Here is a good article to read on how to carry out such attacks.


https://medium.com/@dsl_uiuc/fake-stake-attacks-on-chain-based-proof-of-stake-cryptocurrencies-b8b05723f806

[Pecunia non olet]

I think that it doesn´t make a sense thats why PoS was created because when you do this attack you go against your holdings. While when you attack PoW network, you don´t have to own coins, you only need big hashing power.