Ravencoin exploit exposes proof-of-work chain to multi-day rollback
Security & Exploits ·
A consensus vulnerability let invalid blocks onto the Ravencoin network starting Aug. 7, prompting the two largest mining pools to rebuild the chain from before the breach and sending RVN down sharply.
The flaw first appeared at block height 4,487,776 on Aug. 7 at 15:44:01 UTC, when vulnerable nodes accepted blocks that should have been rejected under the network's proof-of-work rules, according to a network notice cited by Decrypt. Pools 2Miners and RavenMiner, which together hold a majority of Ravencoin's hash power, are now mining an alternative chain that excludes every block built on the exploited branch from that height onward. Because proof-of-work networks treat the chain with the most accumulated computing power as authoritative, that pool-led chain is positioned to become the accepted record if it draws enough support.
The scale of the disruption depends on which timeline holds. Decrypt's reporting describes a potential reorganization of roughly three days and a 20% price decline, while a separate account in the same cluster puts the rollback at four days and the drop at 17%, an inconsistency that has not been reconciled publicly. Either scenario would erase blocks and transactions confirmed after height 4,487,775, the last block treated as valid, effectively resetting the ledger to that point.
The developer who issued the notice sought a less disruptive fix, asking the two pools to pick a more recent recovery point to limit the fallout for users and exchanges; the pools declined. Exchanges were told plainly to pause RVN deposits and withdrawals until the chain stabilizes, and Decrypt's report names Upbit in South Korea and Bitvavo in the Netherlands as platforms that have already frozen movement of the token. Users who moved coins after block 4,487,775 face a blunt warning: those transactions should be treated as at risk, may or may not return to the mempool for remining, and should not be assumed to reappear automatically on exchanges.
Additional detail on the exploit's technical mechanics is tracked separately at leviathan.news, while CoinDesk frames the pending rollback as covering up to four days of activity, underscoring that the exact depth of the reorganization has not been settled.
What remains unresolved is whether the pool-led chain will in fact become dominant, how exchanges will handle deposits and withdrawals caught in the disputed window, and whether the discrepancy between the three-day and four-day rollback estimates reflects evolving data or differing methodologies. Confirmation of the final chain state, and any losses left unrecovered for users who transacted during the exploit window, are still pending.