What a hack! How much would it cost to control the major token blockchains?

Well, the markets might be a little bt in shambles after the most recent plummet (although we’re seeing waves of green at the moment) and so it might be an interesting thought process to see how much it would cost to hack into the major cryptocurrencies for an hour.

What we mean by a 51% attack is that malicious miners manage to gain control of a cryptocurrency’s blockchain in a very particular manner of hacking. By gaining more than half the hashing power on a cryptocurrency’s blockchain, it means that one can gain tentative authority over the network and can authorize or censor any transaction for as long as they are in control.

Read here for more details on a 51% attack or double-spend hack.

That cost and that time are exactly what we are going to be exploring – how much you would be spending to execute a 51% hack on a major blockchain. Taking values and data from Crypto51, we can find out a hack costs for the networks of Bitcoin Ethereum, and Litecoin.

Bitcoin

The original and most valuable cryptocurrency has a current market cap of $75.54 billion USD and is trading at a value of $4340 USD. To execute a 51% attack on Bitcoin’s blockchain, you would need to gather some $229.253 USD out of your pockets for sixty-minutes of hacking fun.

Ethereum

In order to attack a 51% hack on Ethereum’s blockchain, you would need to spend $88,059 USD for an hour of authority.

Litecoin

Litecoin’s current market cap is sitting at $2 billion USD and token currently has a trading value of $35.19 USD. 

In order to successfully conduct a 51% attack on Litecoin’s blockchain, you would need to fork out $19,471 USD for an hour in the control seat.

Disclaimer: We do not condone hacking or the theft of any tokens. This is merely an insight into what it takes.