Analysis of Proof-of-Work-Based Blockchains Under an Adaptive Double-Spend Attack

In this article, we study the performance of blockchains by analyzing the common prefix depth, chain quality coefficient, and chain growth speed coefficient. These three parameters characterize the liveness and consistency of transactions which are important for the proper operation of the blockchai...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on industrial informatics 2020-11, Vol.16 (11), p.7035-7045
Main Authors: Ramezan, Gholamreza, Leung, Cyril
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analytical models
Bitcoin
Blockchain
Cryptography
Delays
double-spend attack
Informatics
Mathematical models
mining
Numerical models
Parameters
proof-of-work
Protocols
security
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Summary:In this article, we study the performance of blockchains by analyzing the common prefix depth, chain quality coefficient, and chain growth speed coefficient. These three parameters characterize the liveness and consistency of transactions which are important for the proper operation of the blockchain. We examine how these three parameters are affected under an adaptive double-spend attack (ADSA). To maintain the performance of a blockchain against ADSA, the user nodes can use a larger number, z, of confirmation blocks for validating a transaction. A comparison of the values of z needed to achieve a given target probability of successful attack is provided for ADSA and the traditional double-spend attack with different system models. The results indicate that a larger value of z is required under ADSA. A more realistic reward model for attackers is also introduced. It is found that the expected reward of an attacker decreases rapidly to zero as z is increased.
ISSN:1551-3203
1941-0050
DOI:10.1109/TII.2020.2977689