From 77a49a7d94574e9c3febf9178fb9800e91cf7d38 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "judymcconville@roadrunner.com" Date: Tue, 2 May 2017 12:24:00 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Edited ch10.asciidoc with Atlas code editor --- ch10.asciidoc | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/ch10.asciidoc b/ch10.asciidoc index 0c4b6c10..8661edd0 100644 --- a/ch10.asciidoc +++ b/ch10.asciidoc @@ -876,7 +876,7 @@ Even though P2Pool reduces the concentration of power by mining pool operators, [[consensus_attacks]] === Consensus Attacks -((("mining and consensus", "consensus attakcs", id="MACattack10")))((("consensus", "consensus attacks", id="Cattack10")))((("security", "consensus attacks", id="Sconsens10")))Bitcoin's consensus mechanism is, at least theoretically, vulnerable to attack by miners (or pools) that attempt to use their hashing power to dishonest or destructive ends. As we saw, the consensus mechanism depends on having a majority of the miners acting honestly out of self-interest. However, if a miner or group of miners can achieve a significant share of the mining power, they can attack the consensus mechanism so as to disrupt the security and availability of the bitcoin network. +((("mining and consensus", "consensus attacks", id="MACattack10")))((("consensus", "consensus attacks", id="Cattack10")))((("security", "consensus attacks", id="Sconsens10")))Bitcoin's consensus mechanism is, at least theoretically, vulnerable to attack by miners (or pools) that attempt to use their hashing power to dishonest or destructive ends. As we saw, the consensus mechanism depends on having a majority of the miners acting honestly out of self-interest. However, if a miner or group of miners can achieve a significant share of the mining power, they can attack the consensus mechanism so as to disrupt the security and availability of the bitcoin network. It is important to note that consensus attacks can only affect future consensus, or at best the most recent past (tens of blocks). Bitcoin's ledger becomes more and more immutable as time passes. While in theory, a fork can be achieved at any depth, in practice, the computing power needed to force a very deep fork is immense, making old blocks practically immutable. Consensus attacks also do not affect the security of the private keys and signing algorithm (ECDSA). A consensus attack cannot steal bitcoin, spend bitcoin without signatures, redirect bitcoin, or otherwise change past transactions or ownership records. ((("denial-of-service attacks")))((("security", "denial-of-service attacks")))Consensus attacks can only affect the most recent blocks and cause denial-of-service disruptions on the creation of future blocks.