Ravencoin price slides 19% after consensus flaw triggers chain split

The flaw centers on the KAWPOW mining algorithm, where an nHeight field in the block header went unverified against the chain’s actual position. This oversight allowed attackers to produce forged blocks at a fraction of the cost of honest mining. Between block heights 4,489,527 and 4,491,615, researchers identified 96 fraudulent blocks among 2,089 analyzed, confirming that the network had been compromised for three days before the issue was disclosed on August 11.

In response, the 2Miners pool released version 4.6.1.1-hf1, which mandates the rejection of invalid blocks starting from height 4,487,776. Because 2Miners and RavenMiner currently control a majority of the hash rate, they are actively mining an alternative chain that ignores the exploited branch. This recovery effort carries significant risks: if this new chain becomes the dominant history, any transactions confirmed after block 4,487,775 may be permanently erased. Ravencoin maintainers have cautioned that while some orphaned transactions might return to mempools, their inclusion in the new chain is not guaranteed.

Major exchanges, including Upbit and Bitget, have halted RVN transfers to protect against potential double-spending and chain reorganization. Market reaction was swift, with RVN falling to $0.00288 as traders weighed the instability. The project has advised all network participants to upgrade their software immediately, though developers are still working on a comprehensive patch that addresses both this consensus vulnerability and a separate, lingering asset transfer quantity overflow bug.