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On the Effectiveness of Blockchain Against Cryptocurrency Attacks

Authors:
Sarwar Sayeed
Hector Marco-Gisbert

Keywords: Blockchain, Consensus, Cyber Attack.

Abstract:
Cryptocurrencies are being widely adopted to perform various online based transactions, and therefore they are re- quired to maintain a consensus to ensure a secured transaction. Blockchain comprises distributed ledger, which holds digital records of individual crypto-transactions. Beside recording a particular activity, blockchain also ensures that the contents of the ledger are decided based on agreements of distinct participants. Various consensus mechanisms are followed by blockchain to ensure blocks are being summed up representing legitimate data on the network. However, the major consensus protocols comprise various limitations; and these are prone to various types of cyber attacks such as DOS, 51% attack, Double spend, Long range attack. In this paper, we analyze various attack vectors that can cause serious security threats due to the loopholes in the consensus mechanism. Our study involves analyzing 3 major consensus mechanisms, which are followed by major cryptocurrencies. We have also discussed the limitations of individual consensus mecha- nisms and demonstrated their robustness towards various attack vectors. We conclude that, although blockchain comprises good consensus mechanisms to enhance secured crypto-transaction, unfortunately it is not strong enough to secure against some cryptocurrency attacks which could discourage some users to adopt this technology.

Pages: 9 to 14

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2018

Publication date: November 18, 2018

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4278

ISBN: 978-1-61208-676-7

Location: Athens, Greece

Dates: from November 18, 2018 to November 22, 2018