Qubic's Monero Network Experiment: A 52% Hash Rate Takeover That Reshaped Network Security and Economics

On August 15, Qubic disclosed the results of its large-scale Monero network experiment, which revealed critical vulnerabilities in network consensus. The initiative secured over 51% of the network’s hash rate, culminating in significant chain reorganization—60 blocks were orphaned while 6 blocks underwent reorganization during the testing window.

Technical Execution and Network Impact

The experiment’s scale proved remarkable. Within just two hours, Qubic’s computational infrastructure mined roughly 80% of all Monero blocks across the network, achieving a peak hash rate of 2.71 GH/s—representing 52% of the global Monero network’s total processing power. A total of 5,506 blocks were generated during this period, substantially outpacing normal network conditions.

Mining Returns and Economic Implications

The financial results demonstrated the economics of large-scale mining operations. The network generated approximately 750 XMR alongside 7 million XTM tokens. On the token burn side, unsold Tari from previous rounds combined with the newly mined 7 million XTM culminated in the destruction of 17.2 billion QUBIC tokens, calculated at an average valuation of roughly 3,200 QUBIC per billion—translating to approximately $55,000 worth of value reduction.

Meanwhile, rewards distributed to computors and miners totaled 62.2 billion QUBIC, valued at around $200,000. Current data indicates that miner earnings on Qubic are nearly quadruple those available on traditional Monero mining, highlighting the economic efficiency gains of the network architecture.

Ongoing Security Assessment

The 51% attack experiment remains in active testing phases, providing real-world data on network resilience and attack vector implications for Monero’s long-term security infrastructure.