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We analyze the economic incentives generated by the proof-of-stake mechanism discussed in the Ethereum Casper upgrade proposal. Compared with proof-of-work, proof-of-stake has a different cost structure for attackers. In Budish (2018),…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2018-07-26 George Gui , Ali Hortacsu , Jose Tudon

Most concurrent blockchain systems rely heavily on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) or Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanisms for decentralized consensus and security assurance. However, the substantial energy expenditure stemming from computationally…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-05-05 Zishuo Zhao , Zhixuan Fang , Xuechao Wang , Xi Chen , Hongxu Su , Haibo Xiao , Yuan Zhou

Blockchain plays a crucial role in ensuring the security and integrity of decentralized systems, with the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism being fundamental for achieving distributed consensus. As PoW blockchains see broader adoption, an…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-01-07 Xunqiang Lan , Xiao Tang , Ruonan Zhang , Bin Li , Qinghe Du , Dusit Niyato , Zhu Han

Bitcoin-NG, a scalable blockchain protocol, divides each block into a key block and many micro blocks to effectively improve the transaction processing capacity. Bitcoin-NG has a special incentive mechanism (i.e. splitting transaction fees…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2020-06-23 Taotao Wang , Xiaoqian Bai , Hao Wang , Soung Chang Liew , Shengli Zhang

We study the incentives behind double-spend attacks on Nakamoto-style Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies. In these systems, miners are allowed to choose which transactions to reference with their block, and a common strategy for selecting…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-12-14 Yanni Georghiades , Rajesh Mishra , Karl Kreder , Sriram Vishwanath

The resource-consuming mining of blocks on a blockchain equipped with a proof of work consensus protocol bears the risk of ruin, namely when the operational costs for the mining exceed the received rewards. In this paper we investigate to…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-09-08 Hansjoerg Albrecher , Dina Finger , Pierre-Olivier Goffard

Mining blocks in a blockchain using the \textit{Proof-of-Work} consensus protocol involves significant risk, as network participants face continuous operational costs while earning infrequent capital gains upon successfully mining a block.…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2025-11-19 Pierre-Olivier Goffard , Hansjoerg Albrecher , Jean-Pierre Fouque

In this work, we reexamine the vulnerability of Payment Channel Networks (PCNs) to bribing attacks, where an adversary incentivizes blockchain miners to deliberately ignore a specific transaction to undermine the punishment mechanism of…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-07-18 Zeta Avarikioti , Paweł Kędzior , Tomasz Lizurej , Tomasz Michalak

Corruptive majority attacks, in which mining power is distributed among miners and an attacker attempts to bribe a majority of miners into participation in a majority attack, pose a threat to blockchains. Budish bounded the cost of bribing…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-10-04 Stephen H. Newman

In this paper, we provide a novel dynamic decision method of blockchain selfish mining by applying the sensitivity-based optimization theory. Our aim is to find the optimal dynamic blockchain-pegged policy of the dishonest mining pool. To…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-11-16 Jing-Yu Ma , Quan-Lin Li

In a PoW-based blockchain network, mining pools (the solo miner could be regarded as a mining pool containing one miner) compete to successfully mine blocks to pursue rewards. Generally, the rewards include the fixed block subsidies and…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-10-20 Jinmian Chen , Yukun Cheng , Zhiqi Xu , Yan Cao

In this paper, we review the undercutting attacks in the transaction-fee-based regime of proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains with the longest chain fork-choice rule. Next, we focus on the problem of fluctuations in mining revenue and the mining…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2023-02-13 Rastislav Budinský , Ivan Homoliak , Ivana Stančíková

This work proposes a novel proof-of-work blockchain incentive scheme such that, barring exogenous motivations, following the protocol is guaranteed to be the optimal strategy for miners. Our blockchain takes the form of a directed acyclic…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2022-06-22 Jakub Sliwinski , Roger Wattenhofer

We study the strategic implications that arise from adding one extra option to the miners participating in the bitcoin protocol. We propose that when adding a block, miners also have the ability to pay forward an amount to be collected by…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-05-21 Elias Koutsoupias , Philip Lazos , Paolo Serafino , Foluso Ogunlana

A proof of work (PoW) blockchain protocol distributes rewards to its participants, called miners, according to their share of the total computational power. Sufficiently large miners can perform selfish mining - deviate from the protocol to…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2020-09-16 Roi Bar-Zur , Ittay Eyal , Aviv Tamar

A proof of work (PoW) is an important cryptographic construct enabling a party to convince others that they invested some effort in solving a computational task. Arguably, its main impact has been in the setting of cryptocurrencies such as…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2023-03-15 Alexandru Cojocaru , Juan Garay , Aggelos Kiayias , Fang Song , Petros Wallden

Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have seen on the rise in their popularity and value, making them a target to several forms of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, and calling for a better understanding of their attack…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-01-05 Muhammad Saad , Joongheon Kim , DaeHun Nyang , David Mohaisen

Proof-of-Work blockchain, despite its numerous benefits, is still not an entirely secure technology due to the existence of Selfish Mining (SM) strategies that can disrupt the system and its mining economy. While the effect of SM has been…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2019-10-08 Tin Leelavimolsilp , Long Tran-Thanh , Sebastian Stein , Viet Hung Nguyen

The Bitcoin cryptocurrency records its transactions in a public log called the blockchain. Its security rests critically on the distributed protocol that maintains the blockchain, run by participants called miners. Conventional wisdom…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2013-11-18 Ittay Eyal , Emin Gun Sirer

A soft control of the network activity through varying reward in a proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency is reported. Rewards are the necessity to incent the contributors activities (i.e., mining) in order to maintain the PoW network. Contrary…

Computers and Society · Computer Science 2014-09-30 Joe Lao