Mining power that once loomed as a threat to Ethereum Classic has shifted into its corner. Chandler Guo, a prominent GPU operator in the Ethereum ecosystem and head of Bitangle, previously warned he w
Mining power that once loomed as a threat to Ethereum Classic has shifted into its corner. Chandler Guo, a prominent GPU operator in the Ethereum ecosystem and head of Bitangle, previously warned he would target ETC with his substantial computational resources. Days later, having witnessed the network's defenses strengthen, he pivoted dramatically—now deploying those same machines to shield the blockchain instead.
The dramatic reversal began when Guo took to Twitter on July 24, announcing his intention to execute a majority consensus attack against ETC, boasting 98 gigahashes of processing power at his disposal. His timing appeared deliberate, coinciding with a surge in computational work flowing toward the Classic network, ultimately rendering such an assault impractical.
An announcement surfaced on the Ethereum forum from a user called "blckeagls," introducing 51pool.org with an explicit mission: accumulating sufficient hashrate to execute network dominance over ETC. The operation was channeling computing cycles toward mining ethereum on the original blockchain, with plans to redirect those resources toward Classic once sufficient capacity materialized.
Two days following his initial threat, Guo's position transformed entirely. On July 26, he declared the attack would not proceed, expressing concern for regular participants holding ETC tokens. "It is easy to attack ETC, but it will certainly affect the innocent ETC holders. My principle is don't be evil," he wrote.
By July 31, Guo announced he would activate 120 gigahashes of computational power in defense of the network, directly countering 51pool.org's ambitions.
The mysterious 51pool.org operation remains shrouded in obscurity. Its architect posted only sporadically on forums, and domain registration records were shielded through a privacy service based in Arizona. At present, the pooled operation controls just 432 megahashes—dwarfed by ETC's network total of 667 gigahashes. Assuming the Classic network gains no additional capacity, 51pool.org faces needing a roughly 77,000% increase in hashrate simply to reach network parity. With merely five miners participating so far, the operation appears minimal. The episode's real impact may lie elsewhere: 51pool.org's emergence seems to have mobilized Guo and other Ethereum supporters to publicly commit their resources toward ETC's security.
