📅 Original date posted:2013-11-04
📝 Original message:On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 3:26 PM, Peter Todd <pete at petertodd.org> wrote:
> The correct, and rational, approach for a miner is to always mine to
> extend the block that the majority of hashing power is trying to extend.
> The current relay rules don't give you that information at all, but they
> can if we do two things:
>
> 1) Relay all blocks that meet the PoW target. (as suggested in the
> paper)
>
> 2) Relay block headers that nearly meet the PoW target.
>
> Mining strategy is now to mine to extend the first block you see, on the
> assumption that the earlier one probably propagated to a large portion
> of the total hashing power. But as you receive "near-blocks" that are
> under the PoW target, use them to estimate the hashing power on each
> fork, and if it looks like you are not on the majority side, switch.
Doesn't that mean that by selective blocking these near-PoW headers,
you can bias peers into preferring to mine on those with near-PoW
headers, turning the attack around? Of course, because of their size,
headers are likely much harder to slow down (in propagation speed)
than full blocks...
--
Pieter
Pieter Wuille [ARCHIVE] /
npub1tj…jtl6r
2023-06-07 15:08:39
in reply to nevent1q…f4tv
Author Public Key
npub1tjephawh7fdf6358jufuh5eyxwauzrjqa7qn50pglee4tayc2ntqcjtl6rPublished at
2023-06-07 15:08:39Event JSON
{
"id": "be5ab706f8336473de7c9bd1aee5159757b1cd6460fdc4fd091fb8620ae637c1",
"pubkey": "5cb21bf5d7f25a9d46879713cbd32433bbc10e40ef813a3c28fe7355f49854d6",
"created_at": 1686150519,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"765fed6c29fdbe34a8d684f2c378c7af27425335b84117da7738480c60386dd8",
"",
"root"
],
[
"e",
"c26f898d563bf2a9749f72790f46da79cef2d1a3a1d42e99a073331dcfba0117",
"",
"reply"
],
[
"p",
"daa2fc676a25e3b5b45644540bcbd1e1168b111427cd0e3cf19c56194fb231aa"
]
],
"content": "📅 Original date posted:2013-11-04\n📝 Original message:On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 3:26 PM, Peter Todd \u003cpete at petertodd.org\u003e wrote:\n\u003e The correct, and rational, approach for a miner is to always mine to\n\u003e extend the block that the majority of hashing power is trying to extend.\n\u003e The current relay rules don't give you that information at all, but they\n\u003e can if we do two things:\n\u003e\n\u003e 1) Relay all blocks that meet the PoW target. (as suggested in the\n\u003e paper)\n\u003e\n\u003e 2) Relay block headers that nearly meet the PoW target.\n\u003e\n\u003e Mining strategy is now to mine to extend the first block you see, on the\n\u003e assumption that the earlier one probably propagated to a large portion\n\u003e of the total hashing power. But as you receive \"near-blocks\" that are\n\u003e under the PoW target, use them to estimate the hashing power on each\n\u003e fork, and if it looks like you are not on the majority side, switch.\n\nDoesn't that mean that by selective blocking these near-PoW headers,\nyou can bias peers into preferring to mine on those with near-PoW\nheaders, turning the attack around? Of course, because of their size,\nheaders are likely much harder to slow down (in propagation speed)\nthan full blocks...\n\n-- \nPieter",
"sig": "32c100fe6ff297ec1a7cb00d3ae15a183669cea6db648e37f08109c689b1cac3c0f246571b5b36361f32c9ff9619270958a1362d4eb7f66b59dece95ffc4571b"
}