https://ift.tt/T2VaIPg pool controls 44% of Monero’s hashrate- The Cryptonomist

Mine XMR, the largest Monero mining pool, is reportedly very close to controlling 50% of the network’s hashrate. 

Monero community apprehensive

After IT security company Sophos discovered a dangerous variant of the crypto-miner Tor2Mine infecting corporate networks to mine Monero in December, a new risk for the cryptocurrency network created for privacy is now looming.

Clearly, the mining issue worries the coin’s supporters in no small part, who argue that it would be very easy for the mining pool to launch a 51% attack, which occurs when an entity holds more than half of the hashing power of a blockchain network.

The advice would be for miners to diversify and transfer their hashes to other Monero pools to try and limit Mine XMR’s control, which currently amounts to about 44.4% of all Monero hashrate. 

Mine XMR, the mining pool that threatens to control the Monero hashrate 

The Mine XMR mining pool currently controls about twice the power controlled by the second and third pools combined, respectively Nanopool, which controls 21.82% of the global XMR hashrate, and Supportxmr, which has 14.85%. In total, the top three mining pools control about 81% of all Monero hashrate.

An administrator from the Mine XMR team let it be known that the company, given the complaints from users, is planning to increase the pool’s fees.

“We understand that people are interested in the massive hashrate that Minexmr currently has. We have announced an increase in pool fees and continue to monitor the situation.”

Monero is currently the largest coin used for privacy, with an approximately $3.6 billion market valuation. In the last two weeks, XMR’s value has increased by almost 20%, although it has been affected by the cryptocurrency market’s difficulties since the beginning of the year, dropping 26%.