Editor’s Note: Article has been updated with comments from a BW representative.

Chandler Guo, a well-known and respected figure in the Chinese digital currency community stated that he, assisted by other miners, will 51% attack Ethereum Classic as soon as possible.

Speaking to CCN.com, Chandler stated that they would isolate any block so that transactions cannot be confirmed which was necessary because of Poloniex’s addition of Ethereum Classic as Ethc.

Poloniex, one of the biggest altcoin exchanges, shocked the community this morning by listing a conceptually insecure and flawed coin, Ethereum Classic, a deprecated chain that has barely any miners and thus lacks any security.

The chain was fully ignored and Ethereum’s community had already moved on before Poloniex made a surprising announcement while Europe and America were asleep. Ethc’s price instantly crashed to pennies, before slightly recovering while Ethereum’s price, although somewhat volatile, continues to trade above $13, down $1 dollar since the news.

Many consider Poloniex’s action to be utterly reckless as Ethc’s chain can be easily double-spent and due to its almost non-existent hash power, the chain can easily be made unoperational. Uninformed users or traders of that chain, perhaps perceiving the coin to have some legitimacy due to Poloniex’s action, may, therefore, lose all of their money as the coin is fully insecure.

Moreover, the development team of Ethc has clearly shown a lack of basic understanding of public blockchains and their incentives by choosing to retain the vastly discarded chain without changing the proof of work, making an attack, therefore, inevitable.

This wouldn’t be the first time an altcoin has been 51% attacked. Luke Jr, a Bitcoin Core contributor, and Blockstream contractor, attacked and destroyed Coiledcoin back in 2012 by using Eligus, a mining pool that he owned at the time. Considering the clear incentives, an attack on Ethc, therefore, should have been expected by both Poloniex and Ethc developers.

Update: A representative of BW, one of Ethereum’s biggest mining pools has since stated:

Mr. Guo’s comments and actions do not represent Bitbank or BW. The CEO of Bitbank and founder of chbtc.com the top ETH trading exchange in China and arguably the world, Mr. Songxiu Hua looks forward to the Ethereum foundation presenting measures to the community that are conducive to the interests of the majority as well as the development of Ethereum.

Featured image from Shutterstock.