In today's digital age, cryptocurrency mining has become a hot topic, however, the ensuing block deduction attacks are a matter of great concern. What is a block deduction attack? What impact does this type of attack have on cryptocurrency systems? This article will delve into the phenomenon of block deduction attacks in cryptocurrency mining and reveal the secrets behind it.

When talking about cryptocurrency mining, block deduction attacks are an issue that cannot be ignored. Block deduction attacks refer to malicious miners intentionally skipping some blocks when mining the blockchain to obtain unfair benefits. Such attacks may lead to chaos and instability in the entire blockchain system, seriously affecting normal mining activities. Next, we will gradually delve into the definition, principle and possible consequences of block deduction attacks.

The principle of the block deduction attack can be simply summarized as miners modifying the data of the blockchain so that certain blocks are "skipped", thereby obtaining additional rewards. This behavior may undermine the fairness and transparency of the blockchain system and damage the trust of the entire network. For example, a malicious miner deliberately skipped several blocks during the mining process, causing other miners to be deprived of the fruits of their labor, while he himself gained undue benefits. This unfair behavior not only damages the stability of the system, but also damages the interests of other miners.

The possible consequences of block deduction attacks on the cryptocurrency system are manifold. First, it will lead to unfairness in the system and destroy the trust originally built on decentralization. Secondly, block deduction attacks may lead to network fragmentation and chaos, affecting the operating efficiency and security of the entire system. Most importantly, this attack method may benefit malicious miners, thus encouraging more people to participate in this unethical behavior and exacerbating the instability of the system.

In order to deal with block deduction attacks, cryptocurrency systems need to strengthen security measures and improve the network's ability to resist attacks. For example, a distributed consensus mechanism can be used to strengthen the monitoring and punishment mechanism of miners' behavior, and fundamentally prevent the occurrence of block deduction attacks. In addition, the cryptocurrency community also needs to strengthen its vigilance against such attacks and jointly maintain the stability and healthy development of the entire system.

Overall, block deduction attacks in cryptocurrency mining are a serious problem that require widespread attention. Only by strengthening supervision, improving security, and strengthening community cooperation can this challenge be effectively addressed and the stability and sustainable development of the cryptocurrency system ensured. Let us work together to maintain the healthy ecology of the cryptocurrency system and jointly create a fairer and more transparent digital world.

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What is a block deduction attack in cryptocurrency mining? There are two types of block deduction attacks. One is an attack for "double spending", proposed by Hal Finney, the first recipient of transactions on the Bitcoin chain, so this attack is also called a "Finney attack." The second type of block deduction attack means that after miners find a legitimate block, they privately withhold the block and do not release it to the public.

01. Block deduction attack

To talk about block deduction attacks, we have to start with the concept of mining pools. The mining pool is equivalent to the project manager, and the computing power connected to the mining pool is the project team member who obeys the project manager's work arrangements. The project is mining to find a solution that meets the requirements of the Bitcoin system as soon as possible. All project team members advance their work tasks and submit work results as arranged by the project manager. The project manager rewards project members based on the specific performance of their tasks in a "more work, more gain" manner.

The problem with block deduction attacks lies in submitting work results.

Finding a solution that meets the requirements of the Bitcoin system is an extremely unlikely event for an individual miner. In order to better measure the workload of miners, the mining pool will set a reasonable threshold for miners to submit their work results (Share).

The mining process is similar to a game of tossing 256 coins. Assume that the system stipulates that to dig out a new block, at least 20 consecutive coins must land heads starting from the first coin. This difficulty is too difficult for a single miner. The mining pool wants to To better measure the workload of miners, it is stipulated that as long as a miner has at least 10 consecutive heads-up results starting from the first coin, it will be counted as the miner's effective proof of workload.

A block deduction attack means that when a malicious miner finds a result that meets the requirements of the mining pool but does not meet the requirements of the Bitcoin system, it normally submits a proof of work to the mining pool; once it obtains a result that meets the requirements of the Bitcoin system, it is truly When a block is mined, the result is withheld privately and is not submitted to the mining pool. As a result, the mining pool loses the corresponding reward.

02. The dangers of block deduction attacks

The block deduction attack does great damage to the mining pool. After the third output halving, one block was deducted, resulting in a loss of 6.25 BTC (ignoring the packaging mining fee), which is about ￥400,000 at the current price. Mining pools continue to suffer block deduction attacks. The luck value of the mining pool is low for a long time, causing huge losses. In severe cases, it may even lead to the collapse of the mining pool.

Why is it said that launching a block deduction attack will have almost no impact on malicious miners? This starts with the settlement method of the mining pool. The current mainstream settlement methods are FPPS and PPS+. The mining pool settles the income to the miners based on the proof of work submitted by the miners, that is, based on the theoretical output.

Malicious miners who want to launch a "block deduction attack" on the mining pool will definitely choose this settlement method. For malicious miners, the frequency ratio between submitting proof of work (Share) that meets the requirements of the mining pool and submitting proof of work that meets the requirements of the Bitcoin system is quite disparate. It is initially estimated that the former is the number of the latter. One hundred thousand times, that is to say, miners must submit hundreds of thousands of workload proofs to the mining pool before they have a chance to encounter a block deduction attack. The effective workload of 100,000 times becomes 99,999 times, which has a huge impact on the miners’ income. The impact is negligible. However, although the frequency of this behavior is very low, it results in a loss of hundreds of thousands of yuan every time, which is particularly damaging to the mining pool.

So the question arises, why do miners launch block deduction attacks that "harm others but not benefit themselves"? The answer is the vicious competition before the mining pool. The mining pool is a very competitive field. In order to destroy competitors, some mining pools will "undercover" their computing power to other mining pools, intending to launch block deduction attacks, causing economic losses to the other party and weakening the strength of competitors.

03. Can block deduction attacks be prevented? 

Due to the underlying protocol of Bitcoin, at the current technical level, mining pools have no effective means of preventing block deduction attacks. The mining pool can only check the block production status of a single user after detecting an abnormality in the lucky value. If it is found that the block data of some users is significantly lower than the average, these obviously suspicious miners will be removed from the mining pool. Of course, this approach may lead to wrongful killing, and the miners who have not launched a block deduction attack will be judged as malicious miners. However, if the mining pool wants to cut off the losses, it can only kick the suspected miners out of the mining pool, which is also a last resort.

Mining pools can prevent miners from launching block deduction attacks by changing the revenue distribution model. The mining pool changed the distribution model from PPS to PPLNS. Under the PPLNS distribution model, the relationship between the mining pool and the miners is equivalent to the company and its partners. The partners and the company are a community of destiny, and the profits and losses are synchronized with the company.