Ravencoin Faces Potential Rollback After Critical Exploit

The Ravencoin network is facing a potential rollback of several days of transaction history after a critical software flaw was exploited, allowing invalid blocks to be added to its blockchain. The incident, which began on August 7, has prompted major mining pools to rebuild the chain from before the attack and led exchanges to suspend deposits and withdrawals of the RVN token.

The vulnerability was first exploited at block height 4,487,776 on August 7 at 15:44 UTC. According to the project's official notice, the flaw caused vulnerable nodes to accept invalid blocks, breaking the fundamental rule that the chain with the most computing power is considered legitimate. Once the weakness was demonstrated on the live network, other attackers replicated the exploit, producing additional invalid blocks.

In response, two mining pools that control a majority of Ravencoin's hash rate, 2Miners and RavenMiner, have begun mining an alternative chain that excludes the exploited branch from block 4,487,776 onward. They are rebuilding the record from block 4,487,775, the last valid block before the attack. If this replacement chain becomes the dominant version, the network will undergo a deep...