Chainlink Endures Spam Attack: Congestion, High Fees

5 September 2020

697

Key Takeaways

Attackers bombarded Chainlink with data requests last Sunday
The attack congested the network and imparted high fees on node operators
Manual whitelisting and compensation controlled the damage from the attack

The oracle platform Chainlink was targeted by a spam attack on Sunday, Aug. 30, congesting the network and preventing nodes from providing data to blockchain app developers.

Spam Attack on Sunday

Rory Piant, Director of Community at Chainlink Labs, originally announced the news on Telegram. He explained that Chainlink was “successfully able to overcome its first large scale on-chain spam attempt,” adding that the network was able to continue operating normally and within expected parameters. During the incident, an attacker attempted to spam Chainlink with excessive requests. Piant says that the attack lasted for “a few hours” but did not impact the network’s performance.

Chainlink nodes had to pay higher ETH fees (or gas fees) in order to continue operating during the attack. According to Piant, node operators were willing to pay those costs to maintain their reputation in the long-term despite higher costs in the short term.

More to the Story?

Though many node operators were willing to pay higher fees to support Chainlink’s continued operation, it seems that the solution to the spam attack is more complex than Piant suggests. Other sources have suggested that Chainlink and node operators whitelisted certain data requests in order to handle the large number of requests. This means that only select, high-profile applications were able to request data during the attack.

Chainlink also reimbursed some node operators who were forced to spend an excessive amount in fees; node operators lost over 700 ETH (~$335,000) in total due to the higher gas fees. Reportedly, Chainlink compensated node operators directly through auto-refill scripts and newly issued grants.

In light of these possibilities, it is not entirely clear whether Chainlink mainly solved the spam attack automatically through its fee model or by meeting the network’s needs in real-time.

Chainlink Market Conditions

Sunday’s spam attack did not attract much attention, and as such, it has not affected market prices dramatically. The price of LINK fell by 14.4% over the past week compared to Bitcoin’s 7.2% drop over the same period. It remains to be seen whether wider publicity around the attack will affect prices more dramatically.

That said, LINK has performed exceptionally well in recent months: its price has risen by 570% over the past year. Though LINK’s price has fallen since it reached an all-time high in August, LINK remains a top-five cryptocurrency by market cap.

The reasons for Chainlink’s above-average performance are not entirely clear—but partnerships, applications, and general market activity may all be behind the coin’s popularity.

The information on or accessed through this website is obtained from independent sources we believe to be accurate and reliable, but Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or warranty as to the timeliness, completeness, or accuracy of any information on or accessed through this website. Decentral Media, Inc. is not an investment advisor. We do not give personalized investment advice or other financial advice. The information on this website is subject to change without notice. Some or all of the information on this website may become outdated, or it may be or become incomplete or inaccurate. We may, but are not obligated to, update any outdated, incomplete, or inaccurate information.

You should never make an investment decision on an ICO, IEO, or other investment based on the information on this website, and you should never interpret or otherwise rely on any of the information on this website as investment advice. We strongly recommend that you consult a licensed investment advisor or other qualified financial professional if you are seeking investment advice on an ICO, IEO, or other investment. We do not accept compensation in any form for analyzing or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or commodities.

See full terms and conditions.

DeFi Lending Project Teller Finance Taps Chainlink for Unsecured Loans…

DeFi lending project Teller Finance has announced its upcoming integration with Chainlink. The oracle provider will provide Teller with three cryptocurrency price feeds via its Price Reference Data oracle networks….

Chainlink Screams Sell Despite New Highs

Decentralized oracles token Chainlink stole the crypto spotlight after outperforming most digital assets this quarter. Despite new all-time highs, different on-chain and technical metrics show that LINK is ready to…

Chainlink’s On-Chain Metrics Suggest Further Price Slump on Hori…

Chainlink has been consolidating within a narrow trading range over the past week. Although different technical indexes call for a rebound towards recent all-time highs, multiple on-chain metrics suggest a…

July BTC Market Analysis

After roughly 2 months of price consolidation following its rapid recovery from Black Thursday (March 12th), Bitcoin broke out of its range following an extended period of muted volatility. Currently…

Source link