public inbox for bitcoindev@googlegroups.com
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Eric Voskuil <eric@voskuil.org>
To: Bitcoin Protocol Discussion <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org>
Subject: Re: [bitcoin-dev] Miner dilution attack on Bitcoin - is that something plausible?
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2018 08:54:27 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <2DFF1C28-9669-478E-A960-D250D4C1260E@voskuil.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CABW94zRW=HFwdt+7M62ob4Z7chdmme8d6A0T_OvBKRVixN2_OA@mail.gmail.com>

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1417 bytes --]

https://github.com/libbitcoin/libbitcoin/wiki/Other-Means-Principle

>> On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 11:39 AM Артём Литвинович via bitcoin-dev <bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org> wrote:
>> Dilution is a potential attack i randomly came up with in a Twitter arguement and couldn't find any references to or convincing arguments of it being implausible.
>> 
>> Suppose a malicious actor were to acquire a majority of hash power, and proceed to use that hash power to produce valid, but empty blocks.
>> 
>> As far as i understand it, this would effectively reduce the block rate by half or more and since nodes can't differentiate block relay and block production there would be nothing they can do to adjust difficulty or black list the attacker.
>> 
>> At a rough estimate of $52 per TH equipment cost (Antminer pricing) and 12.5 BTC per 10 minutes power cost we are looking at an order of $2 billion of equipment and $0.4 billion a month of power costs (ignoring block reward) to maintain an attack - easily within means of even a minor government-scale actor.
>> 
>> Is that a plausible scenario, or am i chasing a mirage? If it is plausible, what could be done to mitigate it?
>> 
>> 
>> -Artem
>> _______________________________________________
>> bitcoin-dev mailing list
>> bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org
>> https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/bitcoin-dev

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2166 bytes --]

  reply	other threads:[~2018-06-19 13:54 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2018-06-18 18:34 [bitcoin-dev] Miner dilution attack on Bitcoin - is that something plausible? Артём Литвинович
2018-06-18 18:47 ` Alexander Leishman
2018-06-19 13:54   ` Eric Voskuil [this message]
2018-06-18 18:49 ` Laszlo Hanyecz
2018-06-18 20:40 ` Bram Cohen
2018-06-18 20:51   ` Bryan Bishop
2018-06-19 18:58 ` Richard Hein

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=2DFF1C28-9669-478E-A960-D250D4C1260E@voskuil.org \
    --to=eric@voskuil.org \
    --cc=bitcoin-dev@lists.linuxfoundation.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox