Ethereum Classic 51 Percent Attackers Purportedly Sent Back $100k to Cryptocurrency Exchange

As per a post on the exchange’s official blog on Jan. 12, the Ethereum Classic 51 percent attacker has supposedly returned $100,000 to cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange Gate.io

Furthermore, the company noted that they tried contacting hackers. However, they didn’t get any reply until now. They further stated that they do not know the exact reason why the funds have been returned. The exchange affirmed that the attacker might be a white hacker if he didn’t run it for profit. He supposedly wanted to remind people of the risks in hashing power security and blockchain consensus.

Notably, a white hat hacker is a hacker with strong professional ethics. He primarily utilizes his hacking abilities for good purposes and not for personal gain.

It is to be noted that Gate.io published their analysis of the 51 percent attack, on Jan. 9. The analysis mentioned the finding that a total of 54,200 ETC worth $271,500 at the time, had been transferred during the time of the supposed hack. Coinbase, the key cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange separately declared on Jan. 8 that the total amount of money included in the deep chain reorganization included cryptocurrency worth over $1.1 million.

Gate.io notes that it is still feasible to rent sufficient computing power for another 51% attack as the present hashrate of the Ethereum Classic network is still low. Interestingly, the number of required confirmations for Ethereum Classic deposits has been raised to 4,000 on Gate.io to safeguard against more such attacks, in accordance with the computing power.

As per the Koinpost’s recent report, Coinbase had identified a deep chain reorganization of the ETC blockchain on Saturday, Jan. 5. Notably, the reorganization included a double spend. Moreover, Coinbase allegedly had taken stock of multiple double spends on the network, by the evening of Jan. 7.

The founder of major altcoin Litecoin, Charlie Lee lately affirmed that by definition a decentralized cryptocurrency must be vulnerable to 51 percent attacks.