On the Phase Space of Block-Hiding Strategies

Assaf Shomer

Paper 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.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Implementation
Publication info: Published elsewhere. Arxiv
Keywords: bitcoin cryptocurrency
Contact author(s): assafshomer @ gmail com
History: 2014-02-25: received
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2014/139
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2014/139,
      author = {Assaf Shomer},
      title = {On the Phase Space of Block-Hiding Strategies},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2014/139},
      year = {2014},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/139}
}