ETC Cooperative
August 2020 Board Package
1 Overview
August was a challenging month, with three separate 51% attacks between July 31st and August 29th with millions of dollars double-spent.
As a consequence of the repeated attacks, many exchanges still have painfully high confirmation numbers (some as long as a 2-week wait).
2 Protocol
Protocol - 51% attacks
CoinDesk article on 31st July attack, reorg of ~3,600 blocks (12 hours mining) CoinDesk article on 6th August attack, reorg of ~4,200 blocks (15 hours mining) CoinDesk article on 29th August attack, reorg of ~7,000 blocks (2 days mining)
ETC experienced a 51% attack on 31 July. Here is our blog post about this first attack with links to various articles from other parties. Bitquery later identified $5.6M in double-spends against the OKEx.
Protocol - Return of Charles and IOHK
In early August, in response to the first two 51% attacks we saw Charles Hoskinson and IOHK return to the table. IOHK had ceased development on the Mantis client in December 2018 because there was no apparent path for sustainable funding.
Protocol - Proposals created in August
Numerous proposals were brought to the table during August for possible protocol changes in reaction to the 51% attacks, some short-term, some long-term.
- ECIP-1092 - 51-percent attack solution PirlGuard by Callisto
- ECIP-1093 - If GPU-friendly Ethash is Removed then Change the ETC Proof of Work Algorithm to CPU-friendly RandomX
- ECIP-1094 - VeriBlock Proof-of-Proof 51%-Attack Prevention
Protocol - Existing proposals
There was also renewed support for these long-standing proposals:
- ECIP-1049 - Change the ETC Proof of Work Algorithm to Keccak256
- ECIP-1043 - Fixed DAG limit restriction
3 Infrastructure
No changes to report during August. Existing systems (BlockScout, Ethercluster, full nodes, boot nodes) are in regular maintenance mode, using Besu exclusively. No new projects are underway.
4 Comms & Marketing
Coordinating with ETC Labs and various 51% ECIP authors, creating their Github presentation pages, and helping evaluate their solutions.
5 Grants
No grants were issued during August. The likelihood is that we will need to spend all the money that we can spare on the protocol work to support these changes in Hyperledger Besu.
6 Finance
Expenditures in $US
| August 2020 Actual | August 2020 Budget | Variance $ August 2020 vs August 2020 Budget | August 2019 Actual | Variance $ August 2020 vs August 2019 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overhead & Management | $17,606 | $21,854 | $(4,248) | $17,115 | $491 |
| Development | $15,214 | $10,000 | $5,214 | $10,000 | $5,214 |
| Protocol | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Comms & Marketing | $2,083 | $0 | $2,083 | $2,153 | $(70) |
| Finance | $2,938 | $15,325 | $(12,387) | $11,320 | $(8,382) |
| Infrastructure | $3,050 | $2,750 | $300 | $3,282 | $(232) |
| Partnerships | $500 | $0 | $500 | $0 | $500 |
| ETC Summit | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total Expenditures | $41,391 | $49,929 | $(8,538) | $43,871 | $(2,480) |
Finance Net (Loss)/Income in $US
| August 2020 Actual | August 2020 Budget | August 2019 Actual | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income | $70,746 | $44,160 | $60,509 |
| Operating Expenses | $41,391 | $49,929 | $43,871 |
| Net (Loss)/Income | $29,355 | $(5,769) | $16,639 |
| Non-cash items | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Adjusted Net Income | $29,355 | $(5,769) | $16,639 |
Financial Positions in $US
| Financial Positions in $US | 31-Aug-20 | 31-Jul-20 | 30-Jun-20 | 31-Mar-20 | 31-Dec-19 | 31-Dec-18 | 31-Dec-17 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash & Cash Equivalents | $193,763 | $246,958 | $233,278 | $195,538 | $146,318 | $530,268 | $0 |
| Total Assets | $397,154 | $380,103 | $363,992 | $322,100 | $333,796 | $684,960 | $371,505 |
| Total Liabilities | $19,889 | $32,442 | $34,888 | $26,905 | $43,393 | $23,328 | $131,864 |
| Total Equity | $377,265 | $347,661 | $329,104 | $295,195 | $290,403 | $661,632 | $239,640 |