Securing Proof-of-Work Ledgers via Checkpointing

Dimitris Karakostas; Aggelos Kiayias

doi:10.1109/ICBC51069.2021.9461066

Securing Proof-of-Work Ledgers via Checkpointing

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Distributed ledgers based on Proof-of-Work (PoW) are typically vulnerable when mining participation is low. During these periods, an attacker with a mining majority can mount serious attacks, like double spending or transaction censorship. Our work explores mechanisms to secure a ledger against such adversaries and puts forth the first rigorous study of checkpointing as a protection from 51% attacks. The core idea is to employ an external set of parties to finalize blocks after their creation. This idea takes the form of checkpointing and timestamping, the former ensuring low latency in a federated setting and the latter being fully decentralized. Crucially, we identify and protect against a (previously undocumented) attack, "block lead", thus our scheme is the first to guarantee liveness.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC)
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Number of pages	5
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-6654-3578-9
ISBN (Print)	978-1-6654-1188-2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ICBC51069.2021.9461066
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2021
Event	IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency 2021 - Virtual Duration: 3 May 2021 → 6 May 2021 Conference number: 3 https://icbc2021.ieee-icbc.org/index.html

Conference

Conference	IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency 2021
Abbreviated title	ICBC 2021
Period	3/05/21 → 6/05/21
Internet address	https://icbc2021.ieee-icbc.org/index.html

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

checkpoints
timestamping
Proof-of-Work

Access to Document

10.1109/ICBC51069.2021.9461066Licence: All Rights Reserved

Securing Proof_KARAKOSTAS_DOA19022021_AFVAccepted author manuscript, 205 KBLicence: All Rights Reserved

https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/173Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY)
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9461066Licence: All Rights Reserved

Cite this

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title = "Securing Proof-of-Work Ledgers via Checkpointing",

abstract = "Distributed ledgers based on Proof-of-Work (PoW) are typically vulnerable when mining participation is low. During these periods, an attacker with a mining majority can mount serious attacks, like double spending or transaction censorship. Our work explores mechanisms to secure a ledger against such adversaries and puts forth the first rigorous study of checkpointing as a protection from 51% attacks. The core idea is to employ an external set of parties to finalize blocks after their creation. This idea takes the form of checkpointing and timestamping, the former ensuring low latency in a federated setting and the latter being fully decentralized. Crucially, we identify and protect against a (previously undocumented) attack, {"}block lead{"}, thus our scheme is the first to guarantee liveness.",

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T1 - Securing Proof-of-Work Ledgers via Checkpointing

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N1 - Conference code: 3

PY - 2021/5/1

Y1 - 2021/5/1

N2 - Distributed ledgers based on Proof-of-Work (PoW) are typically vulnerable when mining participation is low. During these periods, an attacker with a mining majority can mount serious attacks, like double spending or transaction censorship. Our work explores mechanisms to secure a ledger against such adversaries and puts forth the first rigorous study of checkpointing as a protection from 51% attacks. The core idea is to employ an external set of parties to finalize blocks after their creation. This idea takes the form of checkpointing and timestamping, the former ensuring low latency in a federated setting and the latter being fully decentralized. Crucially, we identify and protect against a (previously undocumented) attack, "block lead", thus our scheme is the first to guarantee liveness.

AB - Distributed ledgers based on Proof-of-Work (PoW) are typically vulnerable when mining participation is low. During these periods, an attacker with a mining majority can mount serious attacks, like double spending or transaction censorship. Our work explores mechanisms to secure a ledger against such adversaries and puts forth the first rigorous study of checkpointing as a protection from 51% attacks. The core idea is to employ an external set of parties to finalize blocks after their creation. This idea takes the form of checkpointing and timestamping, the former ensuring low latency in a federated setting and the latter being fully decentralized. Crucially, we identify and protect against a (previously undocumented) attack, "block lead", thus our scheme is the first to guarantee liveness.

KW - checkpoints

KW - timestamping

KW - Proof-of-Work

U2 - 10.1109/ICBC51069.2021.9461066

DO - 10.1109/ICBC51069.2021.9461066

M3 - Conference contribution

SN - 978-1-6654-1188-2

BT - Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC)

PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

T2 - IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency 2021

Y2 - 3 May 2021 through 6 May 2021

ER -

Securing Proof-of-Work Ledgers via Checkpointing

Abstract

Conference

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

Access to Document

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Cite this