After one year in the test phase, the VeriBlock blockchain finally went live last Tuesday. The technology developed by the company promises to offer improved security for crypto wallets and transactions.
This is the kind of news many crypto enthusiasts were eagerly expecting for some time now. By extending Bitcoin’s security to other blockchains, VeriBlock offers protection from established 51% attacks.
How can VeriBlock blockchain improve crypto security?
The new blockchain technology works by linking various blockchains to the mainstay Bitcoin blockchain. Thus, it is effective both for established and new blockchains. In this manner, all kinds of stakeholders will be able to benefit from the Bitcoin blockchain security features. This includes merchants, wallets providers, exchanges and other businesses that deal with cryptocurrency.
Furthermore, the novelty that VeriBlock blockchain brings is proof of proof (PoP). It’s a consensus protocol that records snapshots of any other blockchain and embeds them into Bitcoin transactions in an aggregated manner. Thus, the respective blockchain inherits the security features of the Bitcoin blockchain.
If you’re wondering why use Bitcoin blockchain to secure other blockchains, the company explains:
Bitcoin, the golden standard of security, has more than 40 times the thermos-equivalent computational power to the world’s fastest supercomputer. As of July 2017, a successful attack on Bitcoin would require a minimum of 600 MWh of electricity and over $1B of specialized computational infrastructure.
When VeriBlock detects conflicting snapshots, it triggers the early attack detection metrics and sends a warning to the user. The user has to confirm the potential rewrite of the blockchain and then receives an update when it is safe to accept this transaction.
A potential game changer for the blockchain ecosystem
VeriBlock’s going live received praise from major players in the crypto world. Among others, Matthew Roszak, Bloq co-founder and Chairman wrote:
Bloq is proud to have been part of the journey with VeriBlock over the past two years — and especially with a technology that helps any blockchain project thrive and benefit from the security that Bitcoin provides. As the multi-chain, multi-network, multi-token world emerges, we are confident that VeriBlock will continue to play a vital role as a security root for this new frontier.
And Anthony Di Iorio, Founder and CEO of Decentral, also shares this optimistic view. We’ve worked with the VeriBlock team since 2017 because we believe in the potential of VeriBlock’s technology to help the entire blockchain ecosystem grow by delivering Bitcoin-level security to any other chain,
he said.
Crypto security breaches cause real world losses
According to VeriBlock, due to 51% attacks, over $20 million worth of coins was stolen during the last year. This includes holdings in ZenCash, Ravencoin, Bitcoin Gold, Flo and even Ethereum Classic.
With VeriBlock, as soon as the snapshot of a blockchain is written on the Bitcoin block, the exchange or merchant can accept the transaction with the assurance that it is just as secure as a Bitcoin transaction
, assures the company in their press release.
However, there are some cautious voices that are not yet ready to give the VeriBlock blockchain the perfect 10. One of the Bitcoin Core developers, Peter Todd, said:
The general idea of piggybacking on an existing consensus system is a good one. But VeriBlock is an unusually complex variant of that idea, so I’m not confident given what I’ve seen in the white paper that it is secure.
Looks like we will all have to wait and see who is right after all.
