Qubic "Peaceful Occupation" Monero coin 51% Computing Power: Only to prove, not to attack

Written by: Yangz, Techub News

Monero, this veteran privacy coin that has gradually been labeled as "marginalized" under the trend of the industry moving towards mainstream and embracing compliance, attracted much attention yesterday due to a "peaceful occupation" from an unknown player. However, this spotlight felt more like a "humiliation" for it. Yesterday evening, a Layer1 Qubic led by IOTA's former co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo (nicknamed Come-From-Beyond) retweeted major media posts, stating that the "Monero (XMR) experiment is proceeding smoothly as planned, and everything will be revealed at the appropriate time." The so-called experiment refers to launching a 51% "attack" on Monero, successfully raising concerns about one of the most destructive network threats to cryptocurrencies. Following the news, the price of XMR fell sharply, dropping by 4.5% within an hour.

Three hours later, Qubic issued another statement, officially announcing that it had successfully controlled 51% of the Monero network's computing power. However, unexpectedly, this month-long "occupation" activity was not intended for destruction: Qubic neither initiated a double-spending attack nor implemented a destructive hard fork. On the contrary, it resembled a carefully designed proof, demonstrating that in a decentralized world, the robustness of code cannot withstand the profit-seeking nature of humanity; as long as sufficiently attractive economic incentives are provided, miners will willingly "switch sides."

Qubic: An "Unknown Soldier" Born for AI

According to Qubic, its original intention was not to become another high-speed public chain or financial infrastructure, but to support a fully on-chain decentralized AI model - AIGarth. To achieve this goal, Qubic adopted a lightweight design that allows validation nodes to operate in RAM. It uses the Quorum consensus mechanism and utilizes "Useful Proof of Work" (uPoW) to apply computing power to actual computational tasks rather than meaningless hash collisions.

In addition, Qubic's core innovation lies in "Outsourced Computations." Simply put, Qubic's miners can not only maintain network security but also "rent" their computing power to external tasks (such as training AI or providing computing power for other chains), thereby obtaining higher returns. However, theory needs practical validation. To demonstrate its uPoW and outsourced computing capabilities, Qubic has chosen Monero, known for its privacy and ASIC resistance, as the experimental subject.

Experiment: Using Economic Incentives for "Peaceful Occupation" of Monero

The "Monero Mining Plan" of Qubic can be roughly divided into two phases: in the exploratory layout of the first phase, Qubic allocates computing power to two parts. One part continues to train AIGarth, while the other part is used for mining Monero. Due to the high efficiency of uPoW, the profits from this mining once reached three times that of pure Monero mining, attracting a large number of miners to join the Qubic network; subsequently, the Qubic community made a critical adjustment to the profit distribution mechanism through voting, changing the original 100% of mining profits used for buying back and destroying QUBIC tokens to a new model of 50% for token destruction and 50% for direct rewards to validators. This adjustment visibly increased miners' profits, further siphoning off computing power from Monero's original mining pools.

Of course, the process of "occupying" was not smooth sailing. According to Qubic's description, when it first attempted to seize a 51% hash power advantage on August 2, it encountered resistance from the Monero community. Some of Qubic's validation nodes reported experiencing DDoS attacks, and according to Qubic's summary, this attack lasted for a week. Ivancheglo pointed the finger at Sergei Chernykh (nickname sech1), the main developer of the Monero mining software XMRig, suggesting his possible involvement, but sech1 immediately posted a statement on Reddit, clearly stating that he was not involved in this incident.

Despite facing resistance, Qubic's experiments continue to advance. On August 11, Qubic deployed a more complex "Selfish Mining" strategy, selectively delaying block broadcasts, artificially creating isolated blocks, and releasing the longest chain that was kept secret at critical moments, ultimately successfully testing the reorganization of the Monero network. Data provided by Qubic's chief developer dkat shows that during a key testing window of 122 blocks, Qubic mined 63 blocks, accounting for 51.6%, exceeding the planned target.

However, surprisingly, with the completion of the takeover test, the Qubic team clearly stated that they would not actually take over the consensus mechanism of Monero. This decision considers the price stability of Monero, but the deeper reason is that this action has always been a validation experiment. The Qubic team expressed their hope to eventually reach a win-win situation with Monero: Qubic miners providing security for Monero while being rewarded through the distribution via the Qubic mining pool.

It is important to note that although Qubic claims to currently control 51% of the Monero network's hash rate, the community remains skeptical of this assertion. Yuxian, the founder of Slow Mist, pointed out that the community generally believes Qubic controls only about 33% of the Monero network's hash rate at most. Of course, there are also viewpoints that state, "Having reorganized blocks means the attack has been successful and must be acknowledged. Double spending is purely a moral choice."

Summary

Although there is no definitive conclusion regarding the share of computing power, in this "bloodless occupation," Qubic, with a market value of only 300 million dollars, has successfully put the privacy coin giant with a market value 20 times greater into crisis. It declares to the industry that economic incentives often have more decisive power than technological faith.

Furthermore, the most thought-provoking aspect of this experiment is its "non-aggressiveness." Qubic did not act maliciously; it simply calmly proved a fact: in a decentralized world, value creation is more powerful than coercive control. This is reminiscent of classic disruptive cases in business history. It was not better film that defeated Kodak, but digital technology; it was not cheaper taxis that disrupted the taxi industry, but Uber.

As Dan Dadybayo, researcher and strategist at Unstoppable Wallet, pointed out, "This is not just a story about Monero. It is a warning for all PoW networks. Having strong mathematical capabilities is not enough. We need resilient infrastructure with aligned incentive mechanisms. Otherwise, the next 'attack' may not look like an attack at all, but rather just a better trade."