Tuesday, February 19, 2019

"Once hailed as unhackable, blockchains are now getting hacked"

TechnologyReview:
hackers have stolen nearly $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency since the beginning of 2017, mostly from exchanges, and that’s just what has been revealed publicly

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For popular blockchains, attempting this sort of heist is likely to be extremely expensive. According to the website crypto51.com, renting enough mining power to attack Bitcoin would currently cost more than $260,000 per hour. But it gets much cheaper quickly as you move down the list of the more than 1,500 cryptocurrencies out there. Slumping coin prices make it even less expensive, since they cause miners to turn off their machines, leaving networks with less protection.