Author: John Hardy 2017-03-05 12:55:27
Published on: 2017-03-05T12:55:27+00:00
A unique node identification mechanism has been proposed by John Hardy to help counter sybil attacks on the Bitcoin network. This would involve every node creating a node ‘address’ or unique identifier, which could even come in the form of a Bitcoin address. The corresponding public key would become that node’s unique identifier and asking a node for its identifier can be done by sending a message with the command ‘identify’ and a challenge. This would add a small but useful piece of data when compiling lists of active nodes which would make it easy to identify patterns, such as if a huge new group of nodes appeared on the network with no history for their identifier they could likely be dismissed as sybil attacks. If a huge number of nodes that had been reporting as Bitcoin Core for an extended period of time started switching to a rival implementation this would add credibility but not certainty (keys could be traded), that the shift was more organic.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T22:03:20.561934+00:00