Qubic founder hints at possible 51% attack on Zcash network after similar attack on Monero

Sergey Ivancheglo, the founder of AI crypto protocol Qubic, has hinted at the possibility of executing a 51% attack on privacy token Zcash. Ivancheglo, also known as Come-From-Beyond, shared the view on X.

According to him, the Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn is pro-government, and the network is not as privacy-oriented as it purports to be. Therefore, it might be morally justified to attack the blockchain.

He said:

“It’s not a big secret that #Zcash founder likes licking govt ass if it’s profitable (x.com/zooko/status/8…) and only those who don’t care about privacy (or are misinformed) use $ZEC.”

However, he did not confirm whether there would certainly be an attack, instead choosing to phrase it as a question for his followers to approve.

Ivancheglo wrote:

“Would it be morally justified to 51% attack Zcash, aiming to bring max damage to its blockchain as a part of an economic experiment?”

However,  an X user cautioned Ivancheglo about publicly documenting the planned 51% attacks, noting that it could amount to market manipulation as the posts alone could impact the price performance of the tokens.

They wrote:

“You can’t just hide behind economic incentives when you are facilitating losses for market participants while making posts that clearly state your motives behind the action.”

In response, Ivancheglo stated that the freedom of speech is already guaranteed under the American Constitution. He added that his country, Belarus, is under sanctions from the US, which means no one in the US can sue him.

Crypto users criticize Qubic for targeting Privacy Chain

Meanwhile, the reaction to a possible 51% attack on the Zcash Network has been mixed. While some praise the idea and believe it will be good for the network, others are pessimistic about its impact and question the rationale. One user noted that attacking Zcash will likely harm Zcash users.

Some users also point out that Ivancheglo is taking the post from Wilcox-O’Hearn’s post from 2017  out of context. They noted that the Zcash founder had changed his view on the subject of making Zcash traceable since 2020, adding that he clarified that he was not interested in changing the core protocol itself.

There are also those who believe Zcash remains one of the best blockchain networks for privacy, and unless Qubic offers more privacy and anonymity, damaging Zcash would serve no purpose for the users. Others are more concerned about Qubic attacks targeting privacy networks as part of an economic experiment.

Qubic mining pool had recently gained temporary control of the Monero blockchain and reorganized the blockchain. This caused a sharp decline in the value of XMR, although the token has now recovered. The move was part of an experiment to prove what Qubic can do by showing that any proof-of-work chain can be attacked if the miners get better economic incentives.

While the incident did not have much impact on Monero functionality, it was enough for Kraken to temporarily pause XMR deposits and raise awareness about the need for better safeguards against centralization for PoW networks.

Zcash sees slight gains despite long-term underperformance

Meanwhile, the possibility of a 51% attack on the Zcash network has not impacted its ZEC token, which is up 3.15% in the last 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap.  This is likely because many people do not expect the Qubic to gain sufficient network control. Some noted that getting sufficient ASIC miners to gain control of the Zcash network would be difficult.

Nevertheless, any coordinated attack on the privacy coin could impact its price, especially if successful. ZEC is already struggling with the token losing 37% of its value year-to-date in a rough year for on-chain privacy.

By comparison, QUBIC is enjoying a positive 4.24% performance year-to-date, even though it only has around $400 million in market cap. The token appears to have seen positive performances in recent months, with a 135% gain in the last 90 days.

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