Monero Talk

Merged Mining and Proof of Useful Work - Security Implications for Monero. W/ Francisco Cabanas | EPI 358

July 31st, 2025  |  1 hr 17 mins

articmine, bitcoin, blockchain, crypto, cryptocurrency, cubic, fincen, fungible, monero, monerotalk, monerotopia, privacy, privacycoin, samurai wallet, xmr

TODAY'S SHOW: This episode of Monero Talk featured a discussion with Arctic (Francisco) on key developments in Monero and the broader crypto ecosystem. Arctic shared updates on his work optimizing scaling for full chain membership proofs, addressing concerns about increased transaction sizes and verification times.

They discussed the Samurai Wallet case, where developers pled guilty to money transmission violations tied to fees sent to operators, reinforcing existing FinCEN guidance rather than creating new law.

The main topic centered on the emerging “Cubic” cryptocurrency, which uses Monero merge-mining under the guise of “proof of useful work.” Arctic warned that if Cubic amasses significant hash rate, it could threaten Monero’s network security, similar to the 2018 ASIC attack, and suggested countermeasures like miner education and potential token sell-offs. The conversation also contrasted proof of stake’s flaws with proof of work’s resilience and concluded with updates on Monero’s full chain membership proofs—expected around 2026—which aim to improve fungibility despite larger transaction sizes and longer verification times, mitigated through parallel processing and hardware optimizations.