Calvin Ayre’s CoinGeek, an organization running both a cryptocurrency news outlet and a mining pool, has been getting close to having over 51% of the hashrate on the Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV) network, which could be cause for concern.
As first reported by The Next Web, Coin.Dance data shows CoinGeek has, in the last few days, been close to 46% this week, although at press time it dropped to about 40%. Over the past day, the mining pool mined roughly 396 blocks on the BSV chain.
In the last six months, according to the news outlet, CoinGeek’s hashrate has exceeded 51% two times, between November 18 and 25 – right after the BSV chain was created through a hard fork on the BCH network – and between March 2 and 8.
Getting 51% of the network’s hashrate is seen a negative as it could allow the entity controlling the majority of the hashrate to pull an attack on the blockchain, and double-spend coins. This means all network participants are forced to trust one entity not to attack.
Various cryptocurrencies have suffered 51% attacks in the crypto space’s short history, with Verge (XVG) and Bitcoin Gold (BTG) being examples. The most notable 51% attack to date was the one on Ethereum Classic (ETC), as it saw hackers compromise one of the most popular networks in the space to double-spend over $1.1 million worth of ETC.
It’s worth noting that BMG Pool, a pool that currently has around 31% of BSV’s hashrate, is operated by nChain, the software firm founded by self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto Craig Wright. This means BMG Pool and CoinGeek are operated by BSVs biggest supporters, and together have about 71% of its hashrate.
Bitcoin SV’s Rough Year so Far
Bitcoin SV was notably created on November 15 of last year, and while it did have its problems before 2018 concluded, it’s been having a much rougher time this year, with several cryptocurrency exchanges delisting it.
As CryptoGlobe covered, after Wright and Ayre threatened legal action against crypto Twitter users, Binance ended up delisting BSV, and various other exchanges, including Kraken and ShapeShift, followed suit.
OKEx, on the other hand, of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, refused to give in to mounting pressure and delist the cryptocurrency. At about the same time, however, Poloniex revealed its users “overwhelmingly” use margin to short BSV and BCH on its platform.
CHART: Traders overwhelmingly using margin to short Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Cash on Poloniex.$BSV $BCHSV $BCH $BCHABC https://t.co/9lp2pMYifw
— Poloniex Exchange (@Poloniex) April 25, 2019
A recently published report has revealed that since November, miners on the BSV blockchain accumulated gross losses of $2.2 million. These losses may become more significant in the near future, as the delisting round coupled with short seller pressure took a toll on BSV’s price.
At press time, according to CryptoCompare data, BSV is trading at about $54.5, after rising 1% in the last 24-hour period. In the last 30 days, the cryptocurrency is down by 15.7% while the wider market is up 19.8%, according to the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 100 Index.
