Ethereum Classic Labs announces new security plan

The Ethereum Classic Labs, which is the incubator for the Ethereum Classic blockchain, has announced an ambitious plan to keep the platform secure. In a tweet, ETC Labs stated that they were implementing immediate improvements to the network following the recent 51% attacks where hackers made away with approximately $7.3 million worth of crypto.

According to the post, the new plan will be executed in five phases from August 2020 to January 2021. The strategic plan includes immediate network improvements and several long-term strategies that may involve switching to a new consensus algorithm.

While announcing the bold plan, ETC Labs stated,

 ‘’As stewards of a public blockchain, we are determined to protect the integrity of the ecosystem. We are investing more resources, human and financial, to enhance security, strengthen the network, and ensure a bright future for ETC.’’

ETC Labs immediate security measures

To prevent any further attacks on the network, ETC Labs planned to collaborate with miners to have a Defensive Mining structure, which would ensure a more consistent hash rate. ETC Labs would also carry out enhanced network monitoring that would alert them of any spikes in hash rates.

Thirdly, the network would work closely with exchanges to whitelist addresses and set safe confirmation times of withdrawals. Additionally, the ETC Core Team was working on a ‘Permapoint’ arbitration system that would prevent any chain reorganization in case of another 51% attack.

Long term security proposals by ETC community

As a long term strategy, ETC is looking at proposals to increase the network’s resistance to 51% attacks. One of the proposals by ETC’s community, Pirl Community, suggests penalty blocks for a miner who calls for a heavier and longer chain. The second proposal is one that enhances the public blockchain through checkpoints and timestamps.

The third proposal that may be a game-changer for the blockchain is to switch to a unique mining algorithm. Some of the algorithms being discussed by the ETC community include Ethereum’s Keccak256 and RandomX. ETC believes the radical idea of changing their algorithm would set them in a class of their own when it comes to proof-of-work.

Bumpy road ahead for ETC

While the new security roadmap sounds solid and ambitious, there’s still a lot that ETC has to do to ensure the success of its strategy. ETC acknowledges that ‘switching to RandomX, which is currently used by Monero, might not entirely resolve the issues we currently face.’ However, by January 2021, ETC Labs hopes to have fully implemented the bold security plan.