 
Bitcoin gold (BTG), an offshoot cryptocurrency from bitcoin, was hit by 51 percent attacks on Thursday and Friday.
The malicious mining attack removed roughly 29 blocks via two deep blockchain reorganizations (reorgs), resulting in double spends of 1,900 BTG and 5,267 BTG, respectively.
Blockchain reorgs
A blockchain reorganization attack occurs when a mining group with 51 percent of the hash power (computing power) removes previously confirmed blocks from the blockchain.
For instance, a mining group could pick block number 100 as the point of attack and start mining privately, leaving behind the miners on the public blockchain. So, when malicious miners are on block number 110, the public chain is on 109.
When this happens, there are two separate versions of every block. Essentially, the network gets forked, which needs to be reorganized.
In such cases, the original 10 blocks mined from 100 to 110 are orphaned and replaced with the new blocks mined by the attackers. This process allows individual nodes across the network to agree on the same version of the blockchain.
Note that transactions in the orphaned blocks become invalid as they are no longer the part of the longest chain. Such attacks are often used to double spend crypto, erasing transactions from the record and spending the same funds a second time.
Not the first attack
Bitcoin gold was attacked in May 2018, when the equivalent of roughly $18 million on the blockchain was double spent.
The forked cryptocurrency utilizes a variant of the Equihash algorithm (Equihash 144, 5 or “Zhash”) which can be mined with a GPU. Its parent blockchain, however, uses SHA256 consensus.
Impact on bitcoin gold's price
The cryptocurrency picked up a strong bid after the news of the attack hit the wires. Bitcoin gold rose from $10.42 to $11.60 in a few hours and was last seen trading at $12.14, representing an 11 percent gain on a 24-hour basis. |
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Bulls Making Their Presence Felt
BTC: Price: $8,720 | Market cap: $159 billion | 24-Hr Volume: $25 billion
Trend: Bullish Bitcoin's rise from $8,300 to $8,700 seen in the last 24 hours has activated twin bullish cues on technical charts: the move above $8,350 confirming a wedge breakout, and the break above $8,530 confirming a double-bottom breakout.
While the falling wedge breakout signaled an end of the pullback from $9,200 and opened the doors for a continuation of the rally from $6,800, the double bottom breakout bolstered the bullish case. The cryptocurrency looks set to challenge resistance at Wednesday's high of $8,793 – the level at which bitcoin started to fall.
A break above $8,793 would expose the 200-day average lined up near $9,000. If that hurdle is crossed, the recent high of $9,188 would come into play. The immediate bullish case would weaken if prices find acceptance under $8,530. In that case, sellers may test dip demand by pushing prices to last week's low of $8,200.
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| | | Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments. |
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Bitcoin Gold 51% Attacked