Second, the world of cryptocurrency is ever-evolving. As this evolution continues to unfold, a new debate is emerging — how do you balance innovation with the underlying principles that have created the foundation for these digital currencies. This has ignited a contentious and vigorous debate within the Monero community. It examines the idea of putting dual-mining into practice, using the recently proposed Qubic network. This proposal was a lightning rod for the discussion that followed, illuminating some of the most pressing questions surrounding the trade-offs between scalability, privacy and decentralization. BlockchainShock takes a deep dive into the complexities of this conundrum, providing an even-handed look at both the promise and perils.

The Qubic Proposal: A Double-Edged Sword?

Qubic, a project focused on distributed computing, has proposed a system where Monero miners can simultaneously mine both Monero and Qubic. This “dual-mining” technique, proponents claim, could provide numerous benefits.

Potential Upsides

  • Increased profitability — dual mining can increase mining profits by up to 25% compared to regular mining.
  • Reduced electricity costs — while mining two cryptocurrencies, electricity consumption may be lower or the same as when mining coins separately, while total revenue will be higher.
  • Ability to mine two cryptocurrencies at the same time — this is the main advantage of dual mining, allowing for two different cryptocurrencies to be obtained simultaneously using one piece of hardware.

This allows miners to cash in with their current hardware. This tactic limits their operating expenses while boosting their profits to the fullest. This can create an additional motivation for more miners to join the Monero network, making Monero more secure and resilient as a result.

This proposal isn't without its detractors. Concerns have been raised about the potential impact on Monero's core value proposition: privacy. Monero is best known for its robust privacy features, which are hardcoded to safeguard the anonymity of users. Dueling opposition Yes, the critics are right about one thing too.

Privacy Under Threat?

Monero’s dedication to privacy is perhaps the most important factor that sets it apart in the world of cryptocurrency. This commitment has generated unprecedented interest from cities, states, and transportation agencies. For instance, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has shown interest in cryptocurrency. For example, the IRS has previously provided funding for contractors who are able to create Monero tracing technologies. In 2018, researchers presented possible vulnerabilities in a paper titled "An Empirical Analysis of Traceability in the Monero Blockchain." Back in May 2025, the EU took a daring initiative. Beginning in 2027, it would go further to ban financial institutions and crypto-asset service providers from maintaining anonymous accounts associated with privacy-preserving coins such as Monero.

Underlying the Qubic proposal’s controversy is a concern that it would make Monero transactions more easily traceable. Depending on how the Qubic network operates, it may very well produce data points that can be linked back to Monero transactions, including deanonymizing Qubic users.

Potential Downsides

  • Network Centralization: Concentrating mining power in a single entity, which could lead to a 51% attack and disrupt transactions and network integrity.
  • Control over 51% of Hashrate: Qubic's actions could allow it to control over 51% of Monero's hashrate, enabling it to orphan blocks, reject transactions, delay confirmations, suppress competition, and force protocol changes.
  • Disruption of Monero's Network: Qubic's "useful proof-of-work" (uPoW) system could disrupt Monero's network by rejecting blocks mined by other pools, potentially causing orphaned blocks and delayed transactions.
  • Incentivizing Miners to Surrender: Qubic's economic incentives could lead Monero miners to "voluntarily surrender the network" if they see a better deal connecting to Qubic rather than Monero.
  • Risks to Decentralized Structure: Qubic's actions pose serious risks to Monero's decentralized structure, including centralization of mining power and potential manipulation of the ledger.

Community and Development Team Response

Unsurprisingly, the Monero community has responded hotly to the Qubic proposal, with many Monero developers and supporters voicing both disbelief and alarm. Some members of the crypto community are interpreting Qubic’s campaign as a preliminary, live 51% attack. They think it’s driven more by incentives than by a code exploit. Others have been worried about centralization and security concerns. Others are concerned that Qubic will introduce a majority-hash normalization agenda and disguise it as an exciting new development.

The community quickly united under the mining pool “supportxmr.com” to fight off Qubic in a bid to take control of Monero’s hash power. Nonprofit organizations and community members organized protests, made public comments, and demanded accountability and immediate change. One such Reddit thread, [ Qubic/Sergey Ivancheglo 51% attack plans], went after developers for their inability to respond. In a second thread, someone posted that “the timeline for the 51% attack is August.” It said that the pool had censored 31 of the last 100 blocks and called on the community to take action.

The Monero development team is rightfully treading lightly on the subject. They argue for the need of comprehensive testing and analysis to be done before any adjustments are made. While they see the value that dual-mining could potentially bring, they are hyper aware of the ramifications to risk privacy and decentralization.

Striking a Balance

The Monero-Qubic dual-mining proposal underscores the larger, existential tension between innovation and preservation within the cryptocurrency space. The promise of greater profitability and improved network security is enticing. The Monero community must continue to be wary of modifications that could endanger what Monero’s is known for—privacy.

For the Monero community to truly benefit, it must consider the risk. To be clear, we’re not advising against dual-mining! Rigorous testing, transparent communication, and community consensus will be essential to ensure that any changes to the Monero protocol are in the best interests of the network and its users. BlockchainShock will be following this interesting, developing story closely, so stay tuned for more updates and analysis as this debate continues to unfold.