The 51% Attack on Blockchains: A Mining Behavior Study
The applications that use blockchain are cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance applications, video games, and many others. Most of these applications trust that the blockchain will prevent issues like fraud, thanks to the built-in cryptographic mechanisms provided by the data structure and the con...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IEEE
2021-01-01
|
| Series: | IEEE Access |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9567686/ |
| _version_ | 1811274206881513472 |
|---|---|
| author | Fredy Andres Aponte-Novoa Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco Ricardo Villanueva-Polanco Pedro Wightman |
| author_facet | Fredy Andres Aponte-Novoa Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco Ricardo Villanueva-Polanco Pedro Wightman |
| author_sort | Fredy Andres Aponte-Novoa |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The applications that use blockchain are cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance applications, video games, and many others. Most of these applications trust that the blockchain will prevent issues like fraud, thanks to the built-in cryptographic mechanisms provided by the data structure and the consensus protocol. However, blockchains suffer from what is called a 51% attack or majority attack, which is considered a high risk for the integrity of these blockchains, where if a miner, or a group of them, has more than half the computing capability of the network, it can rewrite the blockchain. Even though this attack is possible in theory, it is regarded as hard-achievable in practice, due to the assumption that, with enough active members, it is very complicated to have that much computing power; however, this assumption has not been studied with enough detail. In this work, a detailed characterization of the miners in the Bitcoin and Crypto Ethereum blockchains is presented, with the aim of proving the computing distribution assumption and creating profiles that may allow the detection of anomalous behaviors and prevent 51% attacks. The results of the analysis show that, in the last years, there has been an increasing concentration of hash rate power in a very small set of miners, which generates a real risk for current blockchains. Also, that there is a pattern in mining among the main miners, which makes it possible to identify out-of-normal behavior. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T23:14:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2b16d5c331914a33a6605d77d4807d19 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T23:14:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-2b16d5c331914a33a6605d77d4807d192022-12-22T03:12:43ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362021-01-01914054914056410.1109/ACCESS.2021.31192919567686The 51% Attack on Blockchains: A Mining Behavior StudyFredy Andres Aponte-Novoa0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3773-4414Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2846-9017Ricardo Villanueva-Polanco2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8682-4830Pedro Wightman3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7641-2090Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Universidad del Norte, Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, ColombiaDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, Universidad del Norte, Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, ColombiaDepartment of Computer Science and Engineering, Universidad del Norte, Puerto Colombia, Barranquilla, ColombiaEscuela de Ingeniería, Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, ColombiaThe applications that use blockchain are cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance applications, video games, and many others. Most of these applications trust that the blockchain will prevent issues like fraud, thanks to the built-in cryptographic mechanisms provided by the data structure and the consensus protocol. However, blockchains suffer from what is called a 51% attack or majority attack, which is considered a high risk for the integrity of these blockchains, where if a miner, or a group of them, has more than half the computing capability of the network, it can rewrite the blockchain. Even though this attack is possible in theory, it is regarded as hard-achievable in practice, due to the assumption that, with enough active members, it is very complicated to have that much computing power; however, this assumption has not been studied with enough detail. In this work, a detailed characterization of the miners in the Bitcoin and Crypto Ethereum blockchains is presented, with the aim of proving the computing distribution assumption and creating profiles that may allow the detection of anomalous behaviors and prevent 51% attacks. The results of the analysis show that, in the last years, there has been an increasing concentration of hash rate power in a very small set of miners, which generates a real risk for current blockchains. Also, that there is a pattern in mining among the main miners, which makes it possible to identify out-of-normal behavior.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9567686/51% attackbitcoinblockchaindouble-spedingethereumhash rate |
| spellingShingle | Fredy Andres Aponte-Novoa Ana Lucila Sandoval Orozco Ricardo Villanueva-Polanco Pedro Wightman The 51% Attack on Blockchains: A Mining Behavior Study IEEE Access 51% attack bitcoin blockchain double-speding ethereum hash rate |
| title | The 51% Attack on Blockchains: A Mining Behavior Study |
| title_full | The 51% Attack on Blockchains: A Mining Behavior Study |
| title_fullStr | The 51% Attack on Blockchains: A Mining Behavior Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | The 51% Attack on Blockchains: A Mining Behavior Study |
| title_short | The 51% Attack on Blockchains: A Mining Behavior Study |
| title_sort | 51 x0025 attack on blockchains a mining behavior study |
| topic | 51% attack bitcoin blockchain double-speding ethereum hash rate |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9567686/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fredyandresapontenovoa the51x0025attackonblockchainsaminingbehaviorstudy AT analucilasandovalorozco the51x0025attackonblockchainsaminingbehaviorstudy AT ricardovillanuevapolanco the51x0025attackonblockchainsaminingbehaviorstudy AT pedrowightman the51x0025attackonblockchainsaminingbehaviorstudy AT fredyandresapontenovoa 51x0025attackonblockchainsaminingbehaviorstudy AT analucilasandovalorozco 51x0025attackonblockchainsaminingbehaviorstudy AT ricardovillanuevapolanco 51x0025attackonblockchainsaminingbehaviorstudy AT pedrowightman 51x0025attackonblockchainsaminingbehaviorstudy |