The ETC Cooperative and IOHK have released an ECIP Comparison for 51% Attack Resistance, comparing solutions in a bid to improve ETC network security. If anything, the report shows solutions already in the pipeline are better options. The downside of the IOHK-evaluated candidates such as “Veriblock” are numerous, compared to the elegant & clear-cut proposals to be implemented(The DAG reduction of ECIP-1099 and Algorithm upgrades of ECIP-1049)
In the past month, Ethereum Classsic teams have made great strides toward preventing attacks. ECIP-1099 and ECIP-1049 are widely supported while keeping in line with ETC’s “Code is Law” Ethos.
We know staying true to the ETC philosophy often means making the challenging choices instead of expedient ones. Ethereum Classic fills a special niche in the blockchain ecosystem. One that could play an important role as an enduring PoW smart contract platform, while risky consensus algorithms are adopted elsewhere.
Below we will cover the current solutions to increase the network hashpower, and introduce a new solution using airdrops.
Streamlined DAG
First, Ethereum Classic has introduced a change to it’s DAG with ECIP-1099. This large, transient, randomly generated dataset, enables the ETC PoW algorithm to be memory intensive, and thus resistant to ASICs.
The DAG continually grows over time, and has swelled beyond what’s necessary for it’s original purpose. The reduction in DAG size will enable 4GB miners to come back online, increasing the ETC hash rate.
Algo Upgrade
In addition, a proposed change to the mining algorithm(ECIP-1049) is in the works. It will help differentiate ETC mining from ETH mining, providing a barrier to transient attacks. The end result will give native ETC miners a technical & engineering advantage against foreign groups on other PoW chains looking to exploit low hashpower chains.
Getting Creative with Airdrops
The beauty of the aforementioned ECIPs is their technical simplicity and general support from the ETC community. But certainly no fork without any code change is the least contentious option.
Here we propose a simple solution to increase ETC network security, a limited token airdrop to ETC miners giving a short-term boost to ETC hash power. This could help bridge the gap while long-term solutions gradually take effect. Call it a hashtoken. ETC does have ERC20 functionality while preferring it’s own ERC23 tokens for various security and utility benefits.
A mining token airdrop would be a bonus to miners given in proportion to hashpower and uptime contributed per unit of time. Interesting tokenomics can be explored, like a combination of token staking and mining for a multiplier effect. Even better, bonus weights can be applied to a “decentralization” score where, smaller mining pools can be incentivized and giant ones discouraged. New miners bringing sudden increases in hashpower might have to wait and prove friendly to receive the token bonus.
Benefits include:
- Adjusted as needed
- No hard fork required
- Promotes Defi activity and new initiatives
- Proud badge of honor against of 51% attacker scum
- Rewards mining without diluting native token supply(ETC)
Of course many devs can do this, but, in order to have significant buy-in, this airdrop should ideally be run by a reputable group to rally ETC users and make sure it’s implemented properly. Possibly ETC labs , ETC Cooperative, ETC Consortium and IOHK along with prominent ETC developers around the world.
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