What is a 51% attack?

Technology CommunityCategory: BlockchainWhat is a 51% attack?
VietMX Staff asked 3 years ago

If a bad actor has more computational power than the rest of the network combined he could alter a block of transactions and try to calculate new signatures for the subsequent blocks in order to have the rest of the network accept his change. Theoretically yes, this is possible and it is called a 51% attack.

On practise though it can be assumed that a single bad actor or entity on the network will never have more computational power than the rest of the network combined, meaning the network will never accept any changes on the blockchain, making the blockchain immutable.

Attempting a 51% attack is practically trying to fight all the other users on a blockchain just by yourself. This is also the reason that the more users participate in the mining process, the more secure a blockchain becomes.