Ravencoin is a fork of Bitcoin, so it is protected by the power of decentralization and mathematics. It uses a proof-of-work mining algorithm called KAWPOW, which replaced X16R and X16RV2 on May 6, 2020. Not only does this ensure security it is designed to be ASIC resistant.
The X16r algorithm group employed initially uses 16 different hashing algorithms for each mining block, but the order in which they are used is different for every block and is derived from the last 8 bytes of the hash of the previous block. It was thought that the necessity to adapt each cycle did not give ASICs any advantage over CPUs and GPUs. Eventually, however, ASICs for it were created, andRavencoin had to switch to an entirely different algorithm, KAWPOW, which was a slightly modified version of ProgPow, which itself was the evolution of Ethash and is optimised for mining on GPUs.
This, combined with the commitment of fair distribution with no pre-mine is meant to ensure that no single individual or organization will have or be able to have enough hash power to try to attempt a 51% attack or create any sort of artificial market price shocks.
Unfortunately, there was a successful known hack of the Ravencoin blockchain, of which the public was informed about on June 3, 2020. During the attack, hackers managed to instantly mint i315 million RVN coins, which constitutes about 1.5% of Ravencoin’s supply cap of 21 billion. At the moment of the announcement, the price of the stolen RVN was estimated at USD $5.7M. None of the existing coin holders were directly affected by the attack.
