A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining

Dennis Eijkel; Ansgar Fehnker

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26

A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining

Dennis Eijkel, Ansgar Fehnker^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Bitcoin, still the most widely used cryptocurrency maintains a distributed ledger for transactions known as the blockchain. Miners should expect a reward proportional to the computational power they provide to the network. Eyal and Sirer introduced seflish mining, a strategy gives a significant edge in profits. This paper models the behaviour of honest and selfish mining pools in Uppaal. Unlike earlier models in literature, it does not assume a single view of the blockchain but does include the presence of network delay. Results for our model show the effects of selfish mining on the share of profits, but more importantly the outwards observable effect on the number of orphaned blocks. This paper compares the analysis results to known results from literature and real-world data.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Formal Methods- FM 2019 International Workshops - Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Emil Sekerinski, Nelma Moreira, José N. Oliveira, Daniel Ratiu, Riccardo Guidotti, Marie Farrell, Matt Luckcuck, Diego Marmsoler, José Campos, Troy Astarte, Laure Gonnord, Antonio Cerone, Luis Couto, Brijesh Dongol, Martin Kutrib, Pedro Monteiro, David Delmas
Publisher	Springer Singapore
Pages	350-361
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Print)	9783030549930
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26
Publication status	Published - 2020
Event	3rd World Congress on Formal Methods, FM 2019 - Porto, Portugal Duration: 7 Oct 2019 → 11 Oct 2019 Conference number: 3 https://sites.google.com/view/fmbc/home

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	12232 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Workshop

Workshop	3rd World Congress on Formal Methods, FM 2019
Abbreviated title	FM 2019
Country	Portugal
City	Porto
Period	7/10/19 → 11/10/19
Internet address	https://sites.google.com/view/fmbc/home

Keywords

Bitcoin
Bitcoin mining
Selfish mining
Uppaal

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26

Link to publication in Scopus

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Eijkel, D., & Fehnker, A. (2020). A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining. In E. Sekerinski, N. Moreira, J. N. Oliveira, D. Ratiu, R. Guidotti, M. Farrell, M. Luckcuck, D. Marmsoler, J. Campos, T. Astarte, L. Gonnord, A. Cerone, L. Couto, B. Dongol, M. Kutrib, P. Monteiro, & D. Delmas (Eds.), Formal Methods- FM 2019 International Workshops - Revised Selected Papers (pp. 350-361). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 12232 LNCS). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26

Eijkel, Dennis ; Fehnker, Ansgar. / A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining. Formal Methods- FM 2019 International Workshops - Revised Selected Papers. editor / Emil Sekerinski ; Nelma Moreira ; José N. Oliveira ; Daniel Ratiu ; Riccardo Guidotti ; Marie Farrell ; Matt Luckcuck ; Diego Marmsoler ; José Campos ; Troy Astarte ; Laure Gonnord ; Antonio Cerone ; Luis Couto ; Brijesh Dongol ; Martin Kutrib ; Pedro Monteiro ; David Delmas. Springer Singapore, 2020. pp. 350-361 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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abstract = "Bitcoin, still the most widely used cryptocurrency maintains a distributed ledger for transactions known as the blockchain. Miners should expect a reward proportional to the computational power they provide to the network. Eyal and Sirer introduced seflish mining, a strategy gives a significant edge in profits. This paper models the behaviour of honest and selfish mining pools in Uppaal. Unlike earlier models in literature, it does not assume a single view of the blockchain but does include the presence of network delay. Results for our model show the effects of selfish mining on the share of profits, but more importantly the outwards observable effect on the number of orphaned blocks. This paper compares the analysis results to known results from literature and real-world data.",

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Eijkel, D & Fehnker, A 2020, A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining. in E Sekerinski, N Moreira, JN Oliveira, D Ratiu, R Guidotti, M Farrell, M Luckcuck, D Marmsoler, J Campos, T Astarte, L Gonnord, A Cerone, L Couto, B Dongol, M Kutrib, P Monteiro & D Delmas (eds), Formal Methods- FM 2019 International Workshops - Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 12232 LNCS, Springer Singapore, pp. 350-361, 3rd World Congress on Formal Methods, FM 2019, Porto, Portugal, 7/10/19. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26

A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining. / Eijkel, Dennis; Fehnker, Ansgar.

Formal Methods- FM 2019 International Workshops - Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Emil Sekerinski; Nelma Moreira; José N. Oliveira; Daniel Ratiu; Riccardo Guidotti; Marie Farrell; Matt Luckcuck; Diego Marmsoler; José Campos; Troy Astarte; Laure Gonnord; Antonio Cerone; Luis Couto; Brijesh Dongol; Martin Kutrib; Pedro Monteiro; David Delmas. Springer Singapore, 2020. p. 350-361 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 12232 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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AB - Bitcoin, still the most widely used cryptocurrency maintains a distributed ledger for transactions known as the blockchain. Miners should expect a reward proportional to the computational power they provide to the network. Eyal and Sirer introduced seflish mining, a strategy gives a significant edge in profits. This paper models the behaviour of honest and selfish mining pools in Uppaal. Unlike earlier models in literature, it does not assume a single view of the blockchain but does include the presence of network delay. Results for our model show the effects of selfish mining on the share of profits, but more importantly the outwards observable effect on the number of orphaned blocks. This paper compares the analysis results to known results from literature and real-world data.

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Eijkel D, Fehnker A. A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining. In Sekerinski E, Moreira N, Oliveira JN, Ratiu D, Guidotti R, Farrell M, Luckcuck M, Marmsoler D, Campos J, Astarte T, Gonnord L, Cerone A, Couto L, Dongol B, Kutrib M, Monteiro P, Delmas D, editors, Formal Methods- FM 2019 International Workshops - Revised Selected Papers. Springer Singapore. 2020. p. 350-361. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26