Authors: Maryam Bahrani, S. Matthew Weinberg

Published on: September 13, 2023

Impact Score: 8.07

Arxiv code: Arxiv:2309.06847

Summary

• What is new: A variant of selfish mining that is statistically undetectable, making it a novel challenge for Bitcoin’s security.
• Why this is important: Selfish mining can earn a miner more bitcoin but is detectable due to the pattern of orphaned blocks it creates, potentially reducing the value of bitcoin.
• What the research proposes: An advanced selfish mining strategy that produces orphaned blocks in a manner statistically indistinguishable from honest mining with network delays.
• Results: The strategy guarantees profitability for attackers with 38.2% of the total hashrate, without being statistically detectable.

Technical Details

Technological frameworks used: Stylized model of Bitcoin mining

Models used: Selfish mining strategy that adjusts the probability of creating orphaned blocks

Data used: Probabilities of orphan block creation under honest and selfish mining conditions

Potential Impact

Cryptocurrency markets; potentially affects companies heavily invested in or reliant on Bitcoin

Want to implement this idea in a business?

We have generated a startup concept here: ChainSafeguard.