Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2014/139

On the Phase Space of Block-Hiding Strategies

Assaf Shomer

Abstract: We calculate the probability of success of block-hiding mining strategies in bitcoin-like networks. These strategies involve building a secret branch of the block-tree and publishing it opportunistically, aiming to replace the top of the main branch and rip the reward associated with the secretly mined blocks. We identify two types of block-hiding strategies and chart the parameter space where those are more beneficial than the standard mining strategy described in Nakamoto's paper. Our analysis suggests a generalization of the notion of the relative hashing power as a measure for a miner's influence on the network. Block-hiding strategies are beneficial only when this measure of influence exceeds a certain threshold.

Category / Keywords: implementation / bitcoin, cryptocurrency

Original Publication (in the same form): Arxiv

Date: received 16 Feb 2014

Contact author: assafshomer at gmail com

Available format(s): PDF | BibTeX Citation

Version: 20140225:160536 (All versions of this report)

Short URL: ia.cr/2014/139

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