Why are Zcash holders concerned, given the growth in the size of the blockchain
Concerns about a potential spam attack have arisen as a result of the unexpected growth in the size of Zcash (ZEC) blockchain caused by increasing transaction volumes.
Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CTO of Bitcoin storage business Casa brought this out in a chirping and stated that the Zcash blockchain has tripled in size to over 100GB in just a few months.
What does this mean?
according to blockchain explorerat block height 1832666, Zcash miners confirmed a block containing four shielded transaction outputs.
Every 75 seconds, a 2MB block appears to have been fully exploited, and the average transaction fee was less than a penny.
The Zcash blockchain grew in size as a result of the latest spamming attack. Due to memory and performance issues with the synchronization of this wave of shielded outputs, nodes have failed as a result.
It is estimated that the transaction fees associated with this attack cost the fraudster around $10 each day.
It is unclear why the attack is being launched, but some believe it is an attempt to damage Zcash’s reputation by causing nodes to crash due to memory, performance and synchronization issues.
Potential node operators may be dissuaded from joining the network, increasing the likelihood of surveillance or so-called Eclipse attacks on the blockchain.
A look at hashrate and difficulty
According to 2miners, the mining difficulties of the chain had fallen slightly compared to last week, and it was at 88.03m at the time of writing.
Weekly average hashrate also showed a fall and was at 10.16. This indicated that mining activity had decreased during that time period. A decrease in mining difficulty may mean that there are fewer miners using the platform.
Source: 2miners.com
ZEC, going down a peg or two
At the close of trading on 6 October, the price of ZEC had shown a downward trend. It opened at $65.41 but closed at $64.28, losing 1.58% of its value. At the time of publication, the asset was trading at a loss of more than 2%.
When viewed on a daily basis, price action has largely been contained. It was observed that $52.69 acted as a support line that held firm.
Near-term resistance was calculated at $59.73, and it was not expected to be tested soon. However, the $66.62 price may represent long-term resistance.
What could be seen as a general trend for ZEC was bearish, albeit weak. The asset’s relative strength index line was just below the neutral line, indicating a mild bearish trend.
Source: TradingView
Zcash’s parent company, the Electric Coin Company (ECC), responded to users’ concerns with a chirping which says that everything worked smoothly.
They claimed that most Zcash users would not notice the difference in blockchain size. Initially, they claimed that a large number of transactions with multiple exits were to blame for the unusually long sync times seen by shielded wallet customers.
