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

1 Citation (Scopus)

45 Downloads (Pure)

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
Subtitle of host publication	Porto, Portugal, October 7–11, 2019, Revised Selected Papers, Part I
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
Place of Publication	Cham
Publisher	Springer
Pages	350-361
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-030-54994-7
ISBN (Print)	978-3-030-54993-0
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26
Publication status	Published - 13 Aug 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
Publisher	Springer
Volume	12232
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Workshop

Workshop	3rd World Congress on Formal Methods, FM 2019
Abbreviated title	FM 2019
Country/Territory	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
22/2 OA procedure

Access to Document

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

Fehnker2019distributedFinal published version, 698 KBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

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: Porto, Portugal, October 7–11, 2019, Revised Selected Papers, Part I (pp. 350-361). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 12232). Springer. 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: Porto, Portugal, October 7–11, 2019, Revised Selected Papers, Part I. 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. Cham : Springer, 2020. pp. 350-361 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science).

@inproceedings{159e8d4e4bd34302a14516e8aa50ae4d,

title = "A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining",

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.",

keywords = "Bitcoin, Bitcoin mining, Selfish mining, Uppaal, 22/2 OA procedure",

author = "Dennis Eijkel and Ansgar Fehnker",

year = "2020",

month = aug,

day = "13",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-3-030-54993-0",

series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science",

publisher = "Springer",

pages = "350--361",

editor = "Emil Sekerinski and Nelma Moreira and Oliveira, {Jos{\'e} N.} and Daniel Ratiu and Riccardo Guidotti and Marie Farrell and Matt Luckcuck and Diego Marmsoler and Jos{\'e} Campos and Troy Astarte and Laure Gonnord and Antonio Cerone and Luis Couto and Brijesh Dongol and Martin Kutrib and Pedro Monteiro and David Delmas",

booktitle = "Formal Methods. FM 2019 International Workshops",

address = "Germany",

note = "3rd World Congress on Formal Methods, FM 2019, FM 2019 ; Conference date: 07-10-2019 Through 11-10-2019",

url = "https://sites.google.com/view/fmbc/home",

}

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: Porto, Portugal, October 7–11, 2019, Revised Selected Papers, Part I. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 12232, Springer, Cham, 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: Porto, Portugal, October 7–11, 2019, Revised Selected Papers, Part I. 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. Cham: Springer, 2020. p. 350-361 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 12232).

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

TY - GEN

T1 - A distributed blockchain model of selfish mining

AU - Eijkel, Dennis

AU - Fehnker, Ansgar

N1 - Conference code: 3

PY - 2020/8/13

Y1 - 2020/8/13

N2 - 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.

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.

KW - Bitcoin

KW - Bitcoin mining

KW - Selfish mining

KW - Uppaal

KW - 22/2 OA procedure

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089718166&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26

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

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85089718166

SN - 978-3-030-54993-0

T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science

SP - 350

EP - 361

BT - Formal Methods. FM 2019 International Workshops

A2 - Sekerinski, Emil

A2 - Moreira, Nelma

A2 - Oliveira, José N.

A2 - Ratiu, Daniel

A2 - Guidotti, Riccardo

A2 - Farrell, Marie

A2 - Luckcuck, Matt

A2 - Marmsoler, Diego

A2 - Campos, José

A2 - Astarte, Troy

A2 - Gonnord, Laure

A2 - Cerone, Antonio

A2 - Couto, Luis

A2 - Dongol, Brijesh

A2 - Kutrib, Martin

A2 - Monteiro, Pedro

A2 - Delmas, David

PB - Springer

CY - Cham

T2 - 3rd World Congress on Formal Methods, FM 2019

Y2 - 7 October 2019 through 11 October 2019

ER -

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: Porto, Portugal, October 7–11, 2019, Revised Selected Papers, Part I. Cham: Springer. 2020. p. 350-361. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science). doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-54994-7_26