Epoch 172 Recap - The Monero Experiment 

TL;DR: Epoch Summary:

• Total of ~ 517 XMR + 6M XTM mined.

• 50% now goes to Qubic coin buybacks & burns, 50% to boost miner incentives for more CPU hashrate.

• 33.5 billion QUBIC burned at an average of rate of $2,280 per B. Same given to Computors/miners as rewards.

• 2.77 GH/s peak hashrate, reaching 50% of global Monero hashrate.

• 4285 total Monero blocks found.

• Qubic has approximately 3x profitability over Monero for miners.

• Attempt for 51% Monero experiment is ongoing.

• Daily historic account of the epoch shared.

Profitability Against Peers

Qubic continues to be the most profitable CPU-mined coin. Below is a breakdown of the metrics maintained by our valued community member, Eko, in the Qubic Discord.

Epoch 172 Revenue 

This epoch's earnings totaled approximately 517 XMR and 6 million XTM, which was lower than prior earnings due to the DDoS attacks. Half of the XMR was sold for QUBIC buyback and burn, while the rest rewarded computors/miners.

Via a Discord vote, the community decided to split the Monero mining rewards. One portion was for Qubic coin buybacks and burns to strategically reduce the circulating supply, and the other was for extra miner incentives to attract more CPU hashrate to the network.

Qubic’s custom mining generated roughly $141,658 in Monero earnings this epoch, selling 517 XMR into the market. This resulted in a 33,462,679,602 QUBIC burn, and the same amount was distributed to the computors/pools. The statistics for USD profits and QUBIC burn amounts have been influenced by a slight decline in the prices of both QUBIC and Monero.

JOETOM @Computor-Notifications 
XMR Bonus for EP172 has been successfully calculated and distributed.
We received 256 XMR, which resulted in a total of 33'462'679'602 Qubic for distribution.
The distribution is even across all Computors:
33'462'679'602 ÷ 676 = 49'501'005 Qubic each

Qubic’s total Monero blocks found reached 4285, a remarkable testament to the network’s mining consistency and growing influence in the Monero ecosystem.

Qubic Hashrate Within Monero Network

There has been some discussion that Qubic doesn't provide its true hashrate values on its dashboards. However, as noted by community member Eko on Discord, we can see how Qubic's hashrate directly increases the overall hashrate of the Monero network at the time of the Qubic's mining "marathons". This makes it easy to verify the accuracy of our reported dashboard values.

Furthermore, you can observe that the difficulty level rises precisely when Qubic is running a mining marathon.

Account for Monero Experiment during Epoch 172

As part of implementing the base layer for Outsourced Computations, Qubic is testing its capabilities in a unique way: by redirecting its vast compute resources to mine another coin, Monero. This is more than just about profitability; it's an "economic demonstration" to showcase Qubic's Useful Proof of Work capabilities.

In the initial weeks, Qubic alternated between spending 50% of its time mining Monero and 50% training its in-house AI, AIGarth. This approach proved to be highly profitable, up to 3x more than direct Monero mining, and attracted additional compute power to the network.

The experiment escalated when the team explored the possibility of taking over the Monero protocol to alter its rules. The goal was to ensure that only miners operating through Qubic would receive rewards. This would not only benefit Qubic miners but also highlight the platform's strengths. The last epoch peaked at 2.3 GH/s, representing 45% of Monero's total hashrate, which set the stage for the test.

Preparation and Rules of Engagement

The first takeover test was scheduled for Saturday, August 2, 2025. Drawing from past "marathons" where the network fully diverted compute to Monero mining, Qubic established clear guidelines:

• Public announcements for every move, allowing Monero to prepare defenses. No surprise attacks.

• Display internal hashrates on Qubic dashboards but remove stats from public sites like miningpoolstats.

• Start with a pure 51% dominance attempt, then shift to "Selfish Mining" requiring only 33-40% hashrate.

• Increase marathons to three per week during the experiment.

The Process: A Day-by-Day Breakdown

August 1st

Leading into the marathon, Qubic's hashrate steadily increased, consistent with prior patterns. Miners contributed up to 48% of Monero's total hashrate, inching toward the 50% threshold.

August 2nd

As the marathon approached, Qubic's infrastructure faced a mild DDoS attack, impacting some nodes and reducing tick quality, though the network persisted. Monero's overall hashrate rose, possibly from rented third-party power to resist the takeover. The marathon began amid ongoing intermittent attacks. The team restored nodes, boosting hashrate, while Monero pools added counter-power, escalating into an all-out battle between miners, operators, and technicians.

August 3rd

The marathon continued under the strongest DDoS attack yet, lasting hours. Core infrastructure held, with the chain ticking and processing transactions, but peripherals like explorers and wallets saw outages. Hashrate dropped to as low as 25% as nodes disconnected. Notably, Qubic mining pools operate independently with their own security, which was rigorously tested. 

Come-from-Beyond @c___f___b · Aug 3
#Qubic has finished the current #Monero mining marathon which laster 24 hours. We managed to mine 20% of the blocks despite of heavy DDoS attacks…

August 4th

With attacks persisting, developers fortified nodes and services. Post-marathon, the network reverted to a 50/50 split between AI training and Monero mining, evident in rising hashrates, including a spike to 50% of Monero's total.

August 5th

The team weighed options: await more miners drawn by profitability or proceed to Selfish Mining. Opting for action, Come-from-Beyond announced on Discord:

Come-from-Beyond · Aug 5
To Monero guys: We are activating selfish mining at 2 GH/s. If below this hashrate, we'll be mining in normal mode.

This signaled Monero to bolster defenses. Monero reportedly countered by listing Qubic public node IPs on sites like abuseipdb.com, which Come-from-Beyond dismissed on X:

Come-from-Beyond @c___f___b · Aug 5
Next round of #Monero's attacks on #Qubic:
Monero is reporting Qubic public node IPs on sites like https://abuseipdb.com.
No, guys, still not a viable countermeasure against a hidden adversary, keep thinking...

August 6th

DDoS attacks persisted, targeting peripherals and computor nodes. Lead dev dkat noted on Discord:

dkat
I asked for a quote yesterday, about $500 per ip @ 100gbps for 24h with syn flood and reflection attack. So roughly $20k per day to target all qubic nodes and ecosystem.
They've been ddosing us 7 days straight now, so about $140k…

The decentralized system showed resilience. Some nodes held firm, others recovered quickly, though services experienced outages, which the team restored.

Tomorrow marks the next marathon and another takeover push.

This is a progress update and there is a lot more news coming from Qubic. Stay tuned.