7 ways to take over a blockchain

Insofar as a blockchain represents a certain network architecture and a security is commonly referred to as “decentralization,” there are various exploits, some commonly known, some currently being discovered.

First, it is notable that this security model was built out a distrust for banks, state censors, and other parties that would be net losers were the world to have a global monetary ledger outside of the control of standard censors.

Here are some of the standard and less standard exploit vectors

[1] Exploit an unknown unpatched bug (examples: Ripple, Stellar)

[2] 51% attack (esp. via an undetectable shadow attack that is not discovered]

[3] fork the chain, esp. a fork forced by hardware (network routers, rooted chips, etc)

[4] Build a too big to fail project on top and/or adjacent to the blockchain (examples: the DAO, Coinbase, Tether)

[5] Build a venture funded company that takes over the core dev and governance of the platform (examples: Blockstream)

[6] Accumulate blackmail-able info on people with core access (examples: Tether)

[7] Reduplicate the functionality of the blockchain in a more centralized manner and siphons users (example: BNB)

If you want more info on how these have been applied feel free to contact me. Expect more of these exploits (and more not listed here) as the central banking systems wake up and attempt to avoid becoming irrelevant.