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From: Tamas Blummer <tamas@bitsofproof.com>
To: Sergio Lerner <sergiolerner@certimix.com>
Cc: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] The Bitcoin Freeze on Transaction Attack (FRONT)
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 06:29:15 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <DCDFAA23-015B-42C2-9094-02DEA6A9D296@bitsofproof.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <5432974B.4000606@certimix.com>

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Sergio,

you can call this an ORBS attack or an attempt of ad-hoc coalition forming for a fork.

Preparation Step:
Include a transaction sending a sizable amount between two of your own addresses in every block.
Miner can do this at zero cost in their own blocks.

Execution:
Embed into the preferred fork a transaction double spending the regular do-nothing transaction with one that offers a sufficiently high fee. This offers inceptive to rational miner to join the ad-hoc coalition for that fork.

Attempting to form an ad-hoc coalition using above steps is open to anyone, just cheaper and easier to execute for a miner. 

Fortunately cost for (cumulative) proof-of-work creates a lower bound to the incentive that need to be offered. So your worry
of times where block subsidy is low is unwarranted as cost of POW will be high.

I do not think “disallowing” the implementation of rational mining is a viable option, since no one needs permission to implement whatever optimization he thinks is profitable and within the rules.

Tamas Blummer

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  reply	other threads:[~2014-10-06 13:29 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2014-10-05 23:00 [Bitcoin-development] The Bitcoin Freeze on Transaction Attack (FRONT) Sergio Lerner
2014-10-05 23:40 ` Gregory Maxwell
2014-10-05 23:50   ` Gregory Maxwell
2014-10-05 23:54   ` Jorge Timón
2014-10-06  0:01     ` Gregory Maxwell
2014-10-06 11:02       ` Mike Hearn
2014-10-06 12:22         ` Tamas Blummer
2014-10-06  6:42 ` Alex Mizrahi
2014-10-06 13:21   ` Sergio Lerner
2014-10-06 13:29     ` Tamas Blummer [this message]
     [not found] <543438E4.8080501@certimix.com>
2014-10-07 19:04 ` Sergio Lerner
2014-10-07 19:16   ` Gregory Maxwell
2014-10-07 20:04     ` Sergio Lerner
2014-10-08 10:19       ` Mike Hearn

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