Author: Sergio Lerner 2014-10-05 23:00:29
Published on: 2014-10-05T23:00:29+00:00
The vulnerability in the Bitcoin protocol that could impact its future is known as the Freeze on Transaction Problem. The problem arises when someone publishes a transaction with fees exceeding the block subsidy. If miners act rationally, they will mine a competing block at the same height to collect the high fee; this creates multiple branches competing against each other, causing a temporary disruption in the network and slowing down the mining process. However, this problem is non-existent currently because of the preventive measures implemented in the latest versions of bitcoind. If an attacker plans to repeat the freeze attack periodically, there is little the current protocol can do to prevent it. Even if the maximum fee per transaction is restricted, the scripting system allows infinite ways to create transactions whose output can be taken by anyone. The best solution is for the community to cooperate and share the high transaction fee. Alternatively, modifying the Bitcoin protocol so that transaction output has a maturity time of 6 blocks and automatically sharing fees in a 6 block sliding window would provide a way for miners to cooperate anonymously. However, an in-depth analysis is necessary before implementing this solution.
Updated on: 2023-06-09T02:58:34.504305+00:00