Preventing proof-of-work mining attacks

【Author】 Azimy, Hamid; Ghorbani, Ali A.; Bagheri, Ebrahim

【Source】INFORMATION SCIENCES

【影响因子】8.233

【Abstract】Bitcoin mining is the process of generating new blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain. This pro-cess is vulnerable to different types of attacks. One of the most famous attacks in this cat-egory is selfish mining. This attack is essentially a strategy that a sufficiently powerful mining pool can follow to obtain more revenue than its fair share. The reason that selfish mining is effective is the difficulty adjustment algorithm used in the Bitcoin network. In this paper, we analyze the profitability of selfish mining with respect to time and propose an alternative difficulty adjustment algorithm that discourages selfish mining while allow-ing the Bitcoin network to remain scalable. We analyze our proposed solution, present the results, and discuss its effectiveness. Based on our analysis, our proposed algorithm effec-tively increases the profitability waiting time for the attackers to almost double its original value. For example, for a miner with 40% of the network's hash power, the algorithm extends the waiting time from 4 weeks to more than 11 weeks. This will discourage attack-ers from performing their malicious activities. We also show that our proposed algorithm allows the network to scale while it increases the waiting time.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

【Keywords】Bitcoin network; Blockchain; Selfish mining; Difficulty adjustment algorithm

【发表时间】2022 AUG

【收录时间】2022-08-15

【文献类型】理论模型

【主题类别】

区块链技术-核心技术-挖矿策略