A Combined Micro-block Chain Truncation Attack on Bitcoin-NG

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Bitcoin-NG, introduced by Eyal et al. in NSDI 2016, divides a blockchain into key-blocks and micro-blocks to improve transaction process efficiency. In this paper, we propose a novel attack on Bitcoin-NG, called a micro-block chain truncation attack. Combined with key-block selfish and stubborn mining, and an eclipse attack, this attack is able to bring extra reward to attackers in Bitcoin-NG than in Bitcoin through a colluded strategy or a “destroyed if no stake” strategy. Our evaluation calculates the reward proportion of an attacker by these attacks on both Bitcoin-NG and Bitcoin, which helps us figure out whether Bitcoin-NG sacrifices security for efficiency promotion. We also evaluate 18 strategy combinations by traversing different values of computation power and practical truncation rate. In a setting with reasonable parameters, the optimal combined micro-block chain truncation attack obtains at most 5.28% more reward proportion in Bitcoin-NG than in Bitcoin.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInformation Security and Privacy - 24th Australasian Conference, ACISP 2019, Proceedings
EditorsJulian Jang-Jaccard, Fuchun Guo
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages322-339
Number of pages18
ISBN (Print)9783030215477
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019
Event24th Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy, ACISP 2019 - Christchurch, New Zealand
Duration: 3 Jul 20195 Jul 2019

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume11547 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference24th Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy, ACISP 2019
Country/TerritoryNew Zealand
CityChristchurch
Period3/07/195/07/19

Keywords

  • Bitcoin-NG
  • Blockchain security
  • Micro-block chain

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