Twenty percent and a few days: optimising a Bitcoin majority attack

Ansgar Fehnker; Kaylash Chaudhary

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77935-5_11

Twenty percent and a few days: optimising a Bitcoin majority attack

Ansgar Fehnker^*, Kaylash Chaudhary

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution › peer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Bitcoin is a distributed online payment system that organises transactions into blocks. The size of blocks is limited to 1 megabyte, which also limits the number of transactions per second that can be confirmed. This year several attempts have been made to create a fork or a split that removes this restriction. One such alternative is Bitcoin Unlimited (BTU). Proponents of BTU have suggested to use a type of majority attack to force other Bitcoin miners to adopt BTU.

In this paper we model this attack in Uppaal, and analyse how long it will take for an attack to succeed, depending on the share the attacker has of the total network, and the so-called confirmation depth. The analysis shows that with a share of 20% an attack will be successful within a few days. This paper also looks at the effect of increasing the confirmation depth as a countermeasure.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	NASA Formal Methods
Subtitle of host publication	10th International Symposium, NFM 2018 Newport News, VA, USA, April 17–19, 2018 Proceedings
Editors	Aaron Dutle, César Muñoz, Anthony Narkawicz
Place of Publication	Cham, Switzerland
Publisher	Springer, Springer Nature
Pages	157-163
Number of pages	7
ISBN (Electronic)	9783319779355
ISBN (Print)	9783319779348
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77935-5_11
Publication status	Published - 2018
Externally published	Yes
Event	10th International Symposium on NASA Formal Methods 2018, NFM 2018 - Newport News, United States Duration: 17 Apr 2018 → 19 Apr 2018

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Publisher	Springer
Volume	10811
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	10th International Symposium on NASA Formal Methods 2018, NFM 2018
Country/Territory	United States
City	Newport News
Period	17/04/18 → 19/04/18

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-319-77935-5_11

Cite this

Fehnker, A., & Chaudhary, K. (2018). Twenty percent and a few days: optimising a Bitcoin majority attack. In A. Dutle, C. Muñoz, & A. Narkawicz (Eds.), NASA Formal Methods: 10th International Symposium, NFM 2018 Newport News, VA, USA, April 17–19, 2018 Proceedings (pp. 157-163). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 10811). Springer, Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77935-5_11

Fehnker, Ansgar ; Chaudhary, Kaylash. / Twenty percent and a few days : optimising a Bitcoin majority attack. NASA Formal Methods: 10th International Symposium, NFM 2018 Newport News, VA, USA, April 17–19, 2018 Proceedings. editor / Aaron Dutle ; César Muñoz ; Anthony Narkawicz. Cham, Switzerland : Springer, Springer Nature, 2018. pp. 157-163 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).

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title = "Twenty percent and a few days: optimising a Bitcoin majority attack",

abstract = "Bitcoin is a distributed online payment system that organises transactions into blocks. The size of blocks is limited to 1 megabyte, which also limits the number of transactions per second that can be confirmed. This year several attempts have been made to create a fork or a split that removes this restriction. One such alternative is Bitcoin Unlimited (BTU). Proponents of BTU have suggested to use a type of majority attack to force other Bitcoin miners to adopt BTU.In this paper we model this attack in Uppaal, and analyse how long it will take for an attack to succeed, depending on the share the attacker has of the total network, and the so-called confirmation depth. The analysis shows that with a share of 20% an attack will be successful within a few days. This paper also looks at the effect of increasing the confirmation depth as a countermeasure.",

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editor = "Aaron Dutle and C{\'e}sar Mu{\~n}oz and Anthony Narkawicz",

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Fehnker, A & Chaudhary, K 2018, Twenty percent and a few days: optimising a Bitcoin majority attack. in A Dutle, C Muñoz & A Narkawicz (eds), NASA Formal Methods: 10th International Symposium, NFM 2018 Newport News, VA, USA, April 17–19, 2018 Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 10811, Springer, Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 157-163, 10th International Symposium on NASA Formal Methods 2018, NFM 2018, Newport News, Virginia, United States, 17/04/18. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77935-5_11

Twenty percent and a few days: optimising a Bitcoin majority attack. / Fehnker, Ansgar; Chaudhary, Kaylash.
NASA Formal Methods: 10th International Symposium, NFM 2018 Newport News, VA, USA, April 17–19, 2018 Proceedings. ed. / Aaron Dutle; César Muñoz; Anthony Narkawicz. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, Springer Nature, 2018. p. 157-163 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 10811).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference proceeding contribution › peer-review

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AB - Bitcoin is a distributed online payment system that organises transactions into blocks. The size of blocks is limited to 1 megabyte, which also limits the number of transactions per second that can be confirmed. This year several attempts have been made to create a fork or a split that removes this restriction. One such alternative is Bitcoin Unlimited (BTU). Proponents of BTU have suggested to use a type of majority attack to force other Bitcoin miners to adopt BTU.In this paper we model this attack in Uppaal, and analyse how long it will take for an attack to succeed, depending on the share the attacker has of the total network, and the so-called confirmation depth. The analysis shows that with a share of 20% an attack will be successful within a few days. This paper also looks at the effect of increasing the confirmation depth as a countermeasure.

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Fehnker A, Chaudhary K. Twenty percent and a few days: optimising a Bitcoin majority attack. In Dutle A, Muñoz C, Narkawicz A, editors, NASA Formal Methods: 10th International Symposium, NFM 2018 Newport News, VA, USA, April 17–19, 2018 Proceedings. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, Springer Nature. 2018. p. 157-163. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science). doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-77935-5_11

Twenty percent and a few days: optimising a Bitcoin majority attack

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