Qubic vs. Monero: Provocation or Demonstration of Force
Date: 2025-08-25 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
Despite the loud statements, there were no real consequences for Monero, and many perceived the project's actions as a PR stunt.
Initially, Qubic was created as a digital asset without the usual disadvantages of Bitcoin. Its concept included no fees, anonymous transactions, the use of Internet bandwidth instead of expensive mining equipment, quorum determination of the rate of coin emission, and an environmentally friendly network. Despite the skepticism of forum participants, the idea attracted the attention of crypto enthusiasts and began to be discussed from a technical perspective, including protecting the network from Sybil-type attacks.
The project was developed thanks to Sergey Ivancheglo, who previously worked on NXT and IOTA. In 2022, the Qubic mainnet was launched with the QUBIC token and the integration of the AIGarth decentralized AI, which operates on the Proof-of-Useful-Work (PoUW) mechanism. It allows computing power to be directed to solving practical problems, excluding military applications, and the network architecture with the Quorum-Based Computation protocol ensures the agreement of more than two-thirds of the 676 nodes and a record transaction speed of up to 15.5 million TPS.
The attempt to control the Monero network was part of an experiment in outsourcing computing. During the attack, Qubic's resources were divided between mining XMR and training AIGarth, which turned out to be more economically profitable than direct mining. Initially, the mined XMR were used to burn QUBIC tokens, and later the reward system was changed: half of the income continued to be burned, and the other half was distributed among miners, which attracted additional power to the pool.
The community reaction was mixed: many Monero experts and users viewed Qubic's actions as a PR stunt, pointing out that they had minimal practical consequences. Thus, according to Hyperfusion co-founder Alex Petrov, the attack increased the project's visibility and the price of QUBIC, but did not harm Monero. The network hashrate was increased by dual mining of XMR and QUBIC, which attracted attention to the pool.
The price of QUBIC increased by 75% after the attack was announced, while XMR temporarily dropped by 25%, but subsequently recovered to $265. As a result, interest in Monero reached a five-year high, and PoW search queries were at a three-year peak. The Monero network continued to operate without delays, and Qubic emphasized the importance of economic incentives for miners to maintain security.
The Qubic community has chosen Dogecoin for its next demo campaign, and the privacy cryptocurrency is already considering new methods to protect against 51% attacks, including hardware localization, merged mining, and ChainLocks. These developments could push the industry to harden PoW networks or reorganize them, leaving Qubic’s actions torn between a show of force and a potential risk to the principles of crypto freedom.
The word Qubic and Monero remain at the center of discussions as examples of how innovation and PR can intersect in the crypto space.
