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Is Stubborn Mining Severe in Imperfect GHOST Bitcoin-Like Blockchains? Quantitative Analysis

delete2024-09-01
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OA
AI
H
Haoran Zhu
常晓林 (Xiaolin Chang) *
J
Jelena Mišić
V
Vojislav B. Mišić
L
Lei Han
Z
Zhi Chen
DOI:10.1109/TSC.2024.3428329delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
GHOST, like the longest-chain protocol, is a chain selection protocol and its capability in resisting selfish mining attack has been validated in imperfect (delay-existing-) blockchains of Bitcoin and its variants (Bitcoin-like). This paper explores an analytical-model-based approach to investigate the impact of stubborn mining attack in imperfect GHOST Bitcoin-like blockchains. We first quantify chain dynamics based on Markov chain process and then derive the formulas of miner revenue and system throughput. We also propose a new metric, Hazard Index, which can be used to evaluate attack threat severity and also assist the adversary in determining whether it is profitable to conduct an attack. The experiment results show that 1) An adversary with more than 30% computing power can get huge profit and extremely downgrade system throughput by launching stubborn mining attack. 2) An adversary should not launch stubborn mining attack if it has less than 25% computing power. 3) Stubborn mining attack causes more damage than selfish mining attack under GHOST. Our work provides insight into stubborn mining attack and is helpful in designing countermeasures.
Keywords:
Blockchains
Protocols
Delays
Bitcoin
Analytical models
Security
Computational modeling
Bitcoin-like Blockchain
GHOST
proof-of-work
quantitative analysis
stubborn mining attack

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Services Computing cover
IEEE Transactions on Services Computing
IF:
5.8
Papers:
2.1K
Citations:
6.5K

Organization

T
Toronto Metropolitan University
Scholars:
6.0K
Papers: 7.0K
Citations: 6.4K
B
Beijing Jiaotong University
Scholars:
2.2W
Papers: 1.7W
Citations: 1.2W