Monero’s Mining Mayhem: Qubic’s Silent War 🦹‍♂️⚔️

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In the dusty plains of the digital frontier, where the sun never sets on the blockchain, a peculiar drama unfolded between Aug. 6 and 7. The Monero network, a stalwart of privacy in the wild west of cryptocurrencies, birthed five orphan blocks in a mere 24 hours. 🌪️ These blocks, like stray cattle, wandered aimlessly within the last 720 blocks, raising eyebrows and whispers of mischief. A post by Qubic’s core developer, CFB, hinted at their hand in this affair, though as subtle as a coyote’s howl in the night.

Orphan blocks, those poor souls, arise when miners, in their greed or haste, dig up the same block height simultaneously. The network, a fickle mistress, chooses the block with the mightiest proof-of-work, leaving the other to wither in obscurity. 🪦 Monero Research Labs, the wise sages of this realm, remind us that such occurrences are as natural as a tumbleweed in the wind, yet a high rate might signal trouble-be it latency or malice.

“They [orphan blocks] occur naturally when two miners mine different valid blocks almost simultaneously. A high rate of orphaned blocks can indicate a problem in network-wide connection latency or even malicious behavior by one or more entities with a large hashpower share. If a malicious entity with a high share of network hashpower attempted a selfish mining strategy to raise its share of block rewards, the rate of orphaned blocks could increase. The malicious entity would cause the blocks of other pools to become orphaned.”

What’s peculiar this time, like a jackrabbit in a henhouse, is an “unknown” miner snagging four out of five blocks, outpacing established pools with a speed that raises more questions than a bartender in a ghost town. Blocks 3471456, 3472098, 3472148, and 3472176 bear this curious mark.

Monero Orphan Blocks Visualization | Source: moneroconsensus.info

On the dusty trails of X, ‘untraceable,’ a Monero sage with a locked account, mused that this might be Qubic’s “selfish mining strategy”-a gambit less profitable than an honest day’s work, unless they control over 33% of the network’s hashrate. 🤠 Other whispers note Qubic’s pool has gone “silent,” hiding its hashrate like a prospector guarding his claim, boosting the share of “unknown” miners from 2% to 8%. CFB claims this silence is to fend off a DDoS attack, but who’s to say?

Unknown was around 2% before Qubic went into hiding.

– Victor (@VictorMoneroXMR) August 7, 2025

Is Monero in Peril?

CFB, a figure as controversial as a snake oil salesman, has been touting Qubic’s “Monero domination” plan since May 2024, facing resistance as fierce as a sandstorm. On July 26, he warned exchanges to brace for orphan blocks from Aug. 2 to Aug. 31, a proclamation as bold as a cowboy’s challenge. 🏜️

Dear $XMR holders, the #Qubic team is unable to contact every single service accepting #Monero coins, please, inform the exchanges and the other relevant entities that from the 2nd of August, 12:00 UTC to the 31st of August, 12:00 UTC it is STRONGLY recommended to accept $XMR…

– Come-from-Beyond (@c___f___b) July 26, 2025

CFB, once a core developer of Bytecoin-a project as dubious as a three-legged horse-has a history that makes Monero supporters wary. Ricardo Spagni, a pillar of Monero’s past, chimed in, suggesting the orphan blocks are within normal bounds, though vigilance is advised. 🕵️‍♂️

“I don’t think it’s so much higher than normal so as to be an outlier – it’s within normal distribution. If it happens for 3 days consecutively I might consider it outside of Poisson distribution, but even then it may just be an outlier.”

As the dust settles, Monero’s faithful-holders, developers, and miners-watch this mining war with a mix of curiosity, skepticism, and opportunism. The risks seem minimal, but in the blockchain’s wild west, one must always keep an eye on the horizon. 🌅

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2025-08-07 23:14