Monero prides itself on privacy. But what happens when this privacy is threatened?
Enter the Black Marble Theory - a potential Achilles' heel for the network.
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The theory revolves around an attacker flooding the network with their own transactions (black marbles) among legitimate ones (white marbles). The goal? To dilute the anonymity pool and potentially identify real transactions.
This sudden influx can decrease the mean effective ring size - the crux of Monero's privacy. A lower ring size means reduced anonymity, making it easier to guess the real transactions amid decoys.
The March 2024 spike in Monero transactions above 100,000 per day brought this theory to life, raising questions about network resilience against such privacy attacks and the need for robust countermeasures.
In his research titled “Monero Black Marble Flood” from Rucknium he points out, that the effective ring size has decreased from 16 to 5.5 in that time.
As of March 27th, this possible attack has ended and Monero transactions have fallen to pre-attack levels about 30,000 per day.
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/monero-transactions.html#3m
Monero is not standing still. The upcoming Seraphis upgrade is set to revolutionize privacy with a default ring size of 128, making transactions more anonymous than ever.
https://www.getmonero.org/2021/12/22/what-is-seraphis.html
Further boosting Monero's privacy, Full Chain Membership Proofs will ensure every transaction is verified across the entire blockchain, significantly enhancing security and anonymity. A game-changer for blockchain privacy!