### 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.

Available format(s)
Category
Implementation
Publication info
Published elsewhere. Arxiv
Keywords
bitcoincryptocurrency
Contact author(s)
assafshomer @ gmail com
History
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2014/139

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},
note = {\url{https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/139}},
url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2014/139}
}

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