Several blockchain analysts, including CoinMetrics and the Bitcoin Association have identified a successful 51% attack on Bitcoin SV (BSV).
BSV is going through a massive 51% attack.
After an attempted attack yesterday, some serious hashing power was unleashed today at 11:46AM and attackers are succeeding.
Over a dozen blocks are being reorgd & up to 3 versions of the chain being mined simultaneously across pools.
— Lucas Nuzzi (@LucasNuzzi) August 3, 2021
CoinMetrics: “Someone is trying the destroy BSV”
The attack was first identified by FARUM, a blockchain risk management tool operated by CoinMetrics. At times, there were three different versions with 14 blocks being reorganized.
Lucas Nuzzi, network data product manager at Coin Metrics suspects that “Someone is seriously trying to destroy BSV”. He added:
For over 3 hours, attackers were able to take over the chain. All exchanges that received BSV deposits during that time might have been double spent.
The Bitcoin Association, which is a BSV-exclusive working group, also confirmed the 51% attack. They advise miners to mark the fraudulent chains as invalid.
The contentious History of Bitcoin SV
Bitcoin SV emerged from a hard fork of the Bitcoin Cash blockchain, which led to the infamous “hash war” in 2018. Although the Bitcoin ABC, which was the main competitor of Bitcoin SV managed to gather more hash power and secured the rights to the Bitcoin Cash name, Bitcoin SV miners decided on a chin split. BSV followed BSC closely in market cap for almost two years, but recently lost ground and is currently only ranked on place 43 by CoinMarketCap.
Even more controversial than the early history of BSV is the leading man behind the chain split, Craig S. Wright. Wright claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin, who went by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, although he never provided credible evidence for his claim. Bitcoin SV is short for “Satoshi’s Vision”.
