Hoskinson’s Midnight Solution: The End of 51% Attacks After Latest Breach?

Another day, another blockchain breach—but this time, Charles Hoskinson claims his 'Midnight' protocol could slam the door on 51% attacks for good. The Cardano founder dropped the bombshell hours after an unnamed network got gutted by the classic crypto heist.

How? By flipping proof-of-work on its head. Midnight's 'snarkified' consensus allegedly makes majority takeovers economically unviable—though skeptics whisper it's just another 'trust us, we're decentralized' sales pitch.

Meanwhile, TradFi bankers are still trying to explain why their 'secure' SWIFT system gets hacked twice a week. Priorities, people.

TLDR

• Monero suffered a 51% attack after Qubic gained majority mining control through high payout incentives.
• Qubic reached over 52% of Monero’s total network power and was able to reorganize the blockchain.
• Monero’s price fell sharply during the incident but recovered slightly after the initial drop.
• Charles Hoskinson emphasized that Midnight’s Minotaur consensus prevents control through a single network resource.
• Minotaur combines Proof of Work and Proof of Stake to balance control and improve security.

A sustained network attack on Monero has triggered renewed discussions about blockchain security, with Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson underscoring Midnight’s defensive design. The Monero network recently faced a 51% takeover attempt, exposing vulnerabilities in single-resource consensus systems. Hoskinson pointed to Midnight’s Minotaur consensus as an example of a system resistant to such concentrated control.

Monero Network Faces Coordinated Mining Power Surge

Earlier this month, blockchain project Qubic gained majority mining control over Monero through a targeted “pay-to-switch” incentive for miners. The initiative offered payouts significantly higher than traditional Monero mining pools, attracting substantial computational power to Qubic’s pool. Consequently, the pool reached over 3 GH/s, representing 52.7% of the total Monero network capacity.

With this control, Qubic could reorganize the blockchain and orphan competing blocks for extended durations. This ability raised concerns about transaction history manipulation and possible double-spending risks. Although Qubic described the MOVE as a stress test, market reaction remained negative.

Monero’s price fell more than 5% within a single day, declining from $267 to under $244 before rebounding slightly to $253. Over the month, Monero dropped around 17%, even as broader market conditions improved. Reports indicated Qubic sold large amounts of mined Monero for stablecoins and used proceeds to repurchase and burn QUBIC tokens.

Hoskinson Emphasizes Midnight’s Multi-Resource Consensus

In response, Hoskinson highlighted the importance of avoiding reliance on one type of network resource for consensus. He explained that Minotaur, which powers Midnight, combines Proof of Work and Proof of Stake in a balanced framework. “No attacker can dominate the network through a single method,” Hoskinson stated.

This is another reason we built minotaur for Midnight. Multi-resource consensus ensures checks and balances for the consensus providers using different resources from work to stake. Thus no one attack can take over the network https://t.co/NluXl1vxrP

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) August 12, 2025

This multi-resource consensus spreads control across different mechanisms, preventing concentrated attacks like the one seen on Monero. According to Hoskinson, Midnight’s architecture addresses the risk of a single-resource majority by integrating multiple validation paths. The design ensures balanced computational loads across participants while safeguarding network stability.

Hoskinson also noted that Midnight’s privacy-oriented features, including ZK-SNARKs, demand substantial computational resources. Therefore, the system optimizes performance by distributing workload among both cardano and Midnight validators. This approach ensures hardware remains efficient without compromising security.

Security and Privacy in Midnight’s Architecture

Midnight focuses on privacy, scalability, and interoperability while maintaining strong resistance to control by any one entity. Its use of Zero-Knowledge Proofs enables transaction verification without exposing private data. This design supports secure, private operations across a distributed network.

Cardano Stake Pool Operators play a dual role by validating for both Cardano and Midnight without hardware overload. Minotaur’s consensus mechanism allows them to operate efficiently while supporting both chains. By blending multiple consensus resources, Midnight aims to remain secure under varied threat scenarios.