<p>Yes, many small coins are susceptible to such attacks. However, the value of the coins is so small that performing a 51% attack on the coin has almost no real use whatsoever. The coins that do actually have value where performing a 51% attack would actually result in non-negligible gains for the attacker are more difficult to attack because they are actually used.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-09T20:45:09.397Z
2018-07-09T20:45:09.397Z
Ava Chow
<p>My understanding is that the integrity of the bitcoin block chain is dependent on the consensus of the masses - that no single actor can write entries at will unless they. controlled over 50% of the compute power focused on calculating proofs. </p>

<p>If this is true, wouldn’t small time coin with much less compute power working for it be susceptible to a bad actor, assuming this actor could focus enough resources? Specifically, slightly more than the current compute power dedicated to the coin such that the bad actor controlled greater than 50%?</p>

<blockchain><majority-attack>
Are smalltime block chains susceptible to brute force liars?
noctonura
# Are smalltime block chains susceptible to brute force liars?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-07-09)

My understanding is that the integrity of the bitcoin block chain is dependent on the consensus of the masses - that no single actor can write entries at will unless they. controlled over 50% of the compute power focused on calculating proofs.

If this is true, wouldn’t small time coin with much less compute power working for it be susceptible to a bad actor, assuming this actor could focus enough resources? Specifically, slightly more than the current compute power dedicated to the coin such that the bad actor controlled greater than 50%?

**Tags:** blockchain, majority-attack


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-07-09. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Yes, many small coins are susceptible to such attacks. However, the value of the coins is so small that performing a 51% attack on the coin has almost no real use whatsoever. The coins that do actually have value where performing a 51% attack would actually result in non-negligible gains for the attacker are more difficult to attack because they are actually used.


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