Author: Gavin 2015-05-13 13:24:04
Published on: 2015-05-13T13:24:04+00:00
The discussion on the Bitcoin-development mailing list revolved around replacing checkpoints with compiled-in information about the main chain's proof of work at a certain timestamp. This would provide enough information to prevent attacks while still allowing for optimizations such as skipping signature checking for older transactions. However, nobody is proposing to replace checkpoints with nothing. A concrete example was given to illustrate the potential risks of not having checkpoints - if a user's router or ISP's router was hijacked, their Bitcoin node could connect to fraudulent nodes and confirm fake transactions. Without checkpoints, an attacker could prepare a fork for $10, whereas with checkpoints it would cost upwards of $100,000. The use of checkpoints makes this attack scenario hard to impossible.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T20:40:42.774145+00:00