Published on: 2020-02-10T15:28:20+00:00
The conversation focuses on the concept of Purge attacks, a form of sabotage attack in Bitcoin. Purge attacks involve replacing recent blocks with empty blocks, causing previously confirmed transactions to return to the mempool. This allows individuals to double-spend their transactions back to themselves. The goal of this attack is to undermine trust in Bitcoin's assurances and disrupt coordination among users.ZmnSCPxj argues that violating the principle of Blockchain Self-Containment, which ensures consensus rules only check what is in the blockchain, can lead to persistent chainsplits, even with innocent miners finding blocks at the same time. M suggests discouraging miners from including conflicting transactions but acknowledges that it may require making consensus dependent on the state of the mempool, potentially leading to chainsplits.The conversation also touches on other topics such as defending against purge attacks by offering increased mining fees for censored transactions and the use of replace by fee (RBF) in opportunistic attacks. ZmnSCPxj warns that defending against RBF-based attacks is not a winning game. The discussion then shifts to the potential risks posed by G20 states seizing major mining operations and how limiting RBF options could force them to resort to denial-of-service (DoS) mode.Overall, the conversation highlights the potential consequences of Purge attacks and the challenges in preventing them. It emphasizes the need for coordination among users and the importance of maintaining the censorship-resistance and integrity of Bitcoin. The full report on mitigations against sabotage attacks can be found at https://blog.deribit.com/insights/destabilizing-bitcoin-consensus-with-purge-attacks/. Feedback on the issue is welcomed.
Updated on: 2023-08-02T01:49:03.631211+00:00