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Major mining pool F2Pool targeted Ethereum for two years

One of Ethereum’s largest mining pools allegedly manipulated the network to its own benefit.

By Mike Hesp
• 2 min read
Major mining pool F2Pool targeted Ethereum for two years

One of Ethereum's largest mining pools allegedly manipulated the network to its advantage. And it did so covertly for two years.

F2Pool manipulated Ethereum's consensus in its favor for two years. That's what an Israeli study claims. Simply put, F2Pool manipulated the timestamps of certain blocks for roughly two years. Since then, the data no longer line up.

According to a statement from a Cryptoslate researcher, they could snatch up 14 percent more rewards. According to the article, this is the "first evidence of a consensus-level attack on a major cryptocurrency."

Currently, Ethereum runs on Proof of Work. In this process, miners supply computing power to keep the network running. They are rewarded for it. In September they switch to another consensus algorithm, namely Proof of Stake. Read all about the transition to Proof of Stake here.

F2Pool has been around since 2013 and is one of the leading pools in the current Proof of Work network. The study is still undergoing the peer-review process. Therefore, the results should be taken with a grain of salt. It, however, draws on publicly available on-chain data and Ethereum's open source code to back up its conclusions.

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