51% Attack on Ethereum (ETH 2.0) Proof of Stake has already Happened?

The transition of Ethereum from a Proof-of-work to a Proof-of-stake consensus mechanism is already knocking at the door with less than 72 hours left in the Merge. At this crucial time, the Merge has become controversial as Jason A. William, one of the founders of Morgan Creek, has claimed that Ethereum (ETH 2.0) is under a 51% attack. This claim, which he made using a tweet, has created a spark in the crypto-verse.

What is a 51% Attack?

A 51% attack is a rare kind of attack on a blockchain in which a group of people (traders or miners) take more than 50% control over a network. These groups can affect the network in multiple ways.

In this case, this group consists of insiders and founders and they have taken control of a majority of Ether (ETH) that is locked in public staking. The insiders are ‘whales’ and they have a large number of Ether already in their possession. The co-founder of Solana has also expressed similar kind of concerns. The control of this group over a majority of staking will create a partial centralization on the blockchain after the Merge.

Vitalik Buterins’s Response to Assumptions

Surprisingly, Vitalik Buterin had answered this assumption 10 days ago by saying that 51% attacked on Ethereum 2.0 would not be ‘fatal’. The point to be noted here is that he never negated the possibility of a 51% attack which means he was somehow aware of the possibility of this attack. He had further said that the attackers can only attack once before they would be slashed/soft-forked away and wouldn’t have sufficient coins to attack again.

In the recent path, Ethereum classic (PoW) has been hit by 51% attacks three times. However, in the case of Ethereum PoS, the possibility of such attacks is only in the beginning. With the passage of time, the chances of a 51% attack will reduce to none because it will become impossible for an entity to hold such a large number of Ether (ETH).