New attack identified and potential solution described: Dropped-transaction spam attack against the block size limit

Summary:

In this discussion, the topic of a potential attack on Bitcoin is explored. It is explained that an attack to fill all blocks with spam transactions would be expensive. However, it is noted that well-funded entities could potentially destroy Bitcoin if they desired. This becomes possible after the implementation of block size limits. Without these limits, spam transactions would not harm Bitcoin but instead enrich miners at the cost of spammers, which is considered anti-fragile. The discussion also acknowledges that there will always be a block size limit due to technological considerations and network bandwidth limitations. An attacker flooding the network with transactions can raise costs but cannot harm security, as it would be cheaper to just 51% attack the network in such cases. This point is reached when transaction fees are 25mBTC/KB, based on the current block subsidy of 25BTC/MB.

Updated on: 2023-06-09T22:38:29.477082+00:00