Ravencoin's price plummets 19% following a consensus vulnerability, prompting mining pools to adopt a new chain and exchanges to halt RVN transactions.
Ravencoin has encountered a critical consensus flaw resulting in certain nodes accepting invalid blocks. This issue was initially reported on August 7 at 15:44:01 UTC, with the first problem arising at block height 4,487,776.
In response to the vulnerability, mining pools 2Miners and RavenMiner have started operating on an alternative chain from block 4,487,775, effectively sidestepping the affected branch. Should this new chain gain traction, the Ravencoin network might experience a reorganization lasting up to three days.
Ravencoin developers have urged mining pools to choose a later recovery point to reduce potential harm to users and exchanges, but this suggestion was rejected. Notably, these pools control around 85% of the identified hash rate, translating to more than half of the total computational capacity of the network.
The Ravencoin team has advised exchanges to pause RVN token deposits and withdrawals until the network stabilizes. Transactions confirmed after block 4,487,775 are deemed risky, as they could revert to the mempool with no assurance of being included in the chain again. Alerts have been issued to exchanges regarding the possibility of canceled transactions not automatically reappearing.
As a result of the turmoil, Ravencoin's RVN token has seen a significant price drop of approximately 19.5% in the last 24 hours, currently trading at around $0.0029, bringing its market cap down to $47.2 million. This marks a staggering 58% loss since the year's start and a 99% decline from its peak value.
In an effort to maintain transparency, the Ravencoin team clarified that they are providing details not to endorse any specific recovery strategy, but to assist in risk evaluation. Historically, the network faced a similar issue in 2020 when a bug allowed for the unauthorized issuance of around 21 million RVN. Additionally, a recent incident in April involving Litecoin highlighted the vulnerabilities of blockchain networks to attacks exploiting zero-day flaws.
