Stealth Mining Attack And It's Effect On Blockchain Network

Source

INTRODUCTION

The blockchain technology, the holy grail of digital and decentralized finance and cryptocurrency networks have introduced and facilitated many groundbreaking and new age innovations in decentralization, security, and transparency however, with all its accomplishments, advanced and robust features, mechanisms and operating techniques, the blockchain technology and systems are still vulnerable to various attacks.

Attacks that basically has the potential to compromise the integrity and functionality of the blockchain technology and network as well as destroy its reputation and diminish the trust of users, the attack which will be of concern today is the stealth mining attack, this attack is propagated or occurs when attackers try to mine blocks privately without broadcasting them to the blockchain network.

Therefore, in this post of mine I will be exploring and discussing some of the noteworthy and significant disadvantages of the stealth mining attacks on the blockchain network, basically outlinig or mentioning how this attack undermines the fundamental and basic principles on which the blockchain is built on principles like decentralization, transparency, and security.

• UNDERMINES DECENTRALIZATION

Decentralization which is a basic and fundamental principle on which the blockchain technology is built and its network are based on, is being undermined and this is as a direct result and consequence of the successful execution and launch of stealth mining attack on the blockchain network, seeing as this attack reverses decentralized mode of operation of the blockchain network.

It does this by allowing a small group of malicious miners to gain a centralized authority and control over the network, these group of malicious miners in the process of this attack basically withhold newly mined blocks from the public blockchain, allowing them to create a hidden chain of blocks which If they can later reveal and as a result overriding the public chain and taking control of the consensus process.

The centralization of concentration of power to one small group of individuals or miners basically defeats the purpose of a decentralized blockchain, which operates by distributing power and authority in the network to large number of miners so that no one possess large enough power or authority to do something like a stealth mining attack which will destroy the trust and integrity of the blockchain network.

• DELAYED TRANSACTION CONFIRMATION TIME

Delayed transaction confirmation time this ia another significant and key disadvantage of a successfully launched or propagated or executed stealth mining attack on the blockchain network, it also can be described as being one of the most immediate and noticeable effects and disadvantages of stealth mining attack, and this is because during this attack the attackers that is malicious miners withhold newly mined blocks and as a result delays in transaction processing or confirmation.

Source

Therefore the delay in transaction processing and confirmation is as a result of the attackers withholding or refusing to broadcast the new blocks and as time goes on the gap in which they create by holding the new blocks will lead to and cause significant delays in transaction processing and confirmation

and as the attack continues the number of unconfirmed transactions will build up, the network experiences congestion, which undermines the security of the blockvhain network further, leaving it prone or vulnerable to other forms of attack, destroying the integrity and trust of users who rely and depend on them.

• REDUCES BLOCKCHAIN NETWORK SECURITY

Another disadvantage of the stealth mining attack is that it weakens the overall network security and robustness of the blockchain leaving it prone, defenseless and vulnerable seeing as in the state of congestion and transaction delay as well miners working to serve their own interests , the consensus mechanism first of all will be compromised and as a result all hell will break loose, making the blockchain more vulnerable to other types and forms of attacks.

Additionally, in the event of a successfully launched and executed stealth mining attack, the malicious miners become or form an entity that basically has or have attained more than 50% of the network’s computational power and as such they can launch a 51% attack, where by they can rewrite parts of the blockchain, reverse transactions, and even censor new transactions from being confirmed, just imagine all the different ways in which the security of the blockchain network have to reduced and compromised before all this will happen.

• DESTROYS MARKET VALUE AND USERS CONFIDENCE

The success of any blockchain network depends heavily on the confidence of its users, but if the network were to fall victim to a stealth mining attack, all hope would be lost as well as the trust and confidence of the blockchain users and participants and this is another disadvantage because lack of trust means little or no adoption of the blockchain network.

Additionally, the event or instance of a successfully launched or executed stealth mining attack not only destroys and causes loss of trust and confidence of users of the network once the network start to experience delays, centralization and other types and forms of attack there is definitely going to be financial losses on the part of users as a result of double spending and so on.

All of these will be very bad and can have lasting effect, I mean take for example if a stealth mining attack occurs on a major cryptocurrency network, news of the attack could spread quickly, causing users to panic and begin to sell off their tokens and cryptocurrency of that blockchain or cryptocurrency network, which will drive the price down, resulting in loss in market value, the loss of confidence in the network could also lead to reduced or no adoption at all

Source

CONCLUSION

In conclusion I would like to use this opportunity to give my appreciation and say a very big thank to everyone who made the effort to read and go through this post which I have made, and I hope that you have been able to learn something new as I have explained and discussed four if I'm not mistaken of the significant and key disadvantages of the stealth mining attack.