The Majority attack
Introduction
Parties holding of the majority attack (51% attacks) have the capability to compromising and manipulating the blockchain since they have the full control of the network mining hash-rate, and there is a need to counter the attack in the interest of stabilizing the operations. Attackers having majority control of the network can seamlessly interrupt the recording of new blocks by making it impossible for the miners to complete the blocks. The attackers holding the majority attack effectively control the network hash rate, thus maliciously revising transaction history in the interest of preventing the confirmation of transactions. Attackers have a monopoly in network control, thus using it to their interest at the expense of other users through disrupting the formation of blockchain.
It is vital in understanding the process and purpose and process of forming the blockchains. In this regard, one will evaluate and understand the impact of the attackers in the formation of a blockchain. Blockchain is established from a growing list of records referred to as blocks that are connected using cryptography. Under the cryptography process data, communication is encrypted and secured to prevent unauthorized parties from accessing and reading private messages (Budish, 2018). The blockchain innovation has been adopted in the cryptocurrencies. Blockchain is a distributed ledger that can be accessed by the public, and it is used in the recording of data in a place, and one is certain of it not being tampered. Blockchain being accessible to the public enables private parties to access details of their transactions in regard to the amount of funds, sender, time of sending, and the destination. This technology is considered to be secure, as it is impossible to hack or compromise the transactions. BlockChain offers great transparency and ensures that transactions are completed with speed. Blockchain is different from the banking system in that a bank is a centralized institution with centralized data storage making it prone to data manipulation, corruption, internal system errors, fraud, and hacking. Therefore, blockchain is adopted in safely recording, auditing, and detailing transactions with relevant chain.
The introduction of a majority attack in the course of blockchain formation prevents the confirmation of transactions from taking place. The attacks are directly made on the blockchain, commonly referred to as bitcoins. The hackers and the attackers acting on the blockchain have control of the computing power or the network mining hash rate (Budish, 2018). The attackers take advantage of the control of the network to prevent transactions from being confirmed, reversing transactions that were already completed, and halting payment between various users. The attackers compromise the system to the point of creating new coins and altering the old blocks. Therefore, computing power or the majority attacks empowers the attackers to manipulate the formation of blockchains, thus preventing other miners from completing blocks.
The majority attacks prevent the formation of blockchains forms being formed. In this case, cryptocurrencies and bitcoins are founded on blockchains that form a distributed ledger. The Distributed ledger is digital files that record and take account of every transaction conducted through a cryptocurrency network (Bonneau, 2018). The different blocks record all the completed transactions, thus forming the blockchains when combined. However, the majority of attacks interfere with the establishment of new blocks by preventing miners from completing the blocks. Therefore, they monopolize the mining of new blocks, thus gaining all the rewards.
The majority attack has the monopoly of the computing powers compared to other parties in the market, thus preventing the formation of blockchains by halting the transactions of the minority (Bonneau, 2018). The activities of the attackers are implemented at their interest and at the expense of the minority. In this regard, there is a need to deal dilute or deal with the computing monopoly held by the attackers to ensure that transactions are completed, thus enhancing the formation of blockchains.
Research Problem
There is a great need to establish issues of conflict between the majority attack and the other miners in the market to the point of prevention the establishment of blockchains. The competition between the two parties results in one party taking advantage over the other due to the monopoly of computing power. In this regard, there is a need to address the factors that prevent the formation of blockchains, the scope of the problem, factors affecting the research problem, solutions that can be controlled, functional relationships, and solutions critical to the problem.
The problem of majority attack is confined to the prevention of transactions, thus acting as a barrier to blockchain formation. The failure to the formation of blockchains means that transactions on different aspects are halted and prevented by the majority of attackers. The majority of attackers have 51% attacking power over the other miners that they always succeed in winning different transactions. Therefore, the problem at hand revolves around failure to attain success in different transactions leading to the development of blockchains.
There are different factors affecting the research problem by contributing to it or controlling it, thus controlling and affecting the formation of the blockchain. Computing power achieved through the majority attacks is a factor that contributes to the transactions forming blockchain being compromised. Lack of centralization of operations such as data in the blockchain formation is a factor that makes it hard to control the majority attackers and their intention in the market. Therefore, the decentralization of market transactions leading to the formation of blockchain is a major factor in the research problem.
The research problems can be exposed to a different solution that can be effectively controlled with the intention of achieving rationality in the transactions leading to the formation of blockchains. There is a need to regulate the computing power held by the majority attackers, thus neutralizing their power. The different solutions that can be adopted include the use of consensus rule to prevent malicious miners from publishing empty blocks, adopt penalty system for delayed blocks, invalidation of blocks, adoption of threshold paradox, non-fully distributed solutions, or the adoption of Nakamoto consensus. Neutralizing the power held by the majority attackers ensures that the other miners can compete favorably compete in completing transactions to form a blockchain.
The neutralization of the computing power held by the majority of attackers is directly connected to the research problem. The neutralization of the computing power ensures that the other miners are empowered to have equal or similar power with the majority attackers. The neutralization of the majority of attackers can be equated to empowering the other miners to compete favorably. This approach is effective in eliminating the research problem to ensure transactions are completed, thus creating blockchains.
Proposed solution
The invalidation of blocks is a great and sustainable solution to tackling the issue of majority attack. The majority of attackers are involved in a wide range of malicious operations means to prevent the other miners in the market from recording complete transactions, thus preventing the formation of blockchains. In this regard, the majority attacks need to be prevented by empowering the other miners to invalidate suspicious and malicious attempts from the majority attackers (Li et al., 2017). This approach enables the miners to prevent the majority attackers from completing transactions at their expenses. It is vital to note that the majority attackers have great computing power that should be neutralized by enabling the other miners to cancel and invalidate illegitimate and unfair transactions. The miners need to invalidate suspicious blocks and make a clean break. Upon the invalidation, the extending chains from the block are termed as null and void, thus achieving a clean break.
Methodology
The methodology aims at establishing if a fair playing ground can be achieved in the market by the invalidation of suspicious and illegitimate transactions arising from the majority attackers at the expense of the other miners in the market (Somdip, 2018). This approach means that transactions can only be effected when there is a consensus between the majority attackers and the other miners in the market. The transactions will only be approved if they are genuine and legitimate.
Artificial intelligence and human input are used in deciding the legitimacy and the genuineness of transactions from all the miners. In this regard, machine learning and algorithmic game theory are adopted to keep vigilance on the operations in the market (Somdip, 2018). The technology adopts intelligent software agents to evaluate and monitor the operations and functions of stakeholders such as the miners and majority attackers’ blockchain networks. The majority attackers conduct different anomalies in the market with the intention to increasingly achieve success in transactions by preventing other miners from completing their transactions.
The methodology has different parties that include the self-interested agents and players involved in different actions in the market in the interest of payoffs (Somdip, 2018). The self-interested agents and the players are rivals, and they engage in both legitimate and illegitimate actions in their transactions with the interest of achieving substantial payoffs. The attacker is interested in maximizing their rewards as opposed to making losses.
All the transactions for the majority attackers and other miners are a function of legitimacy that evaluates the legitimacy and genuineness of the transactions. The function determines if the transaction will be executed or not based on the value of services/commodity, intentions, and approach of the stakeholders, thus ensuring the safety and legitimacy of transactions. The safety of the blockchain process of formation is evaluated from the function of legitimacy.
The utility function determining the legitimacy of transactions is fed in the supervised machine learning algorithms and is used to evaluate and analyze the transaction, thus approving or disapproving them (Dey, 2018). The transactions are evaluated from the set of rules regulating the transactions and operations, thus preventing the confirmation of blockchain form the attacker or canceling the whole transaction to a new and fair transaction is presented. The cancellation of transactions means that no payoffs are given to the parties to different transactions until they uphold legitimacy and fairness in their dealings and transactions in the market.
The intelligent agent in the evaluation of the transaction is incorporated with a blockchain network system that is composed of different parts. The different parts of the network systems entail on based past transactions of the stakeholder and their extent of defecting on different transactions and the other based on the value of the commodity and the likelihood of the stakeholder making an attack using the majority attack.
The process and the transactions are implemented in stages until the transactions are completed. This approach ensures that at every stage, the transactions are evaluated and approved it they meet the fairness and legitimacy threshold (Dey, 2018). When a transaction is initiated, a new block is released to the network to pass the consensus threshold. The transaction is further moved to the application layer and subjected to the intelligent software agent where the utility function is used to determine the motive of the stakeholders. In the case, the motive of the stakeholder is found to have collusion; then the transaction is canceled.
Reported results
The utility function is effective in determining the value of the service or the commodity for transactions. The utility function is modified and edited from time to time to include things and aspects that are considered to be unfavorable for the marker (Dey, 2018). This result shows that utility function can keep up with time, thus preventing illegal transactions both in current times and in the future.
The result ensures that the market is leveled such that all miners and the stakeholders can approach and relate with the market from a similar platform (Dey, 2018). The technology ensures that undue advantages held by the majority attackers are eliminated. This ensures that the miners’ transactions cannot be adversely affected in the course of carrying different operations.
The machine learning and algorithmic technology act as a deterrent to majority attackers or any other stakeholders intending to initiate transactions based on unfairness or illegitimacy. Illegitimate and unfair transactions will definitely be blocked and canceled using the technology, thus prompting the stakeholders to incorporate fairness and legitimacy in their different transactions.
Conclusion
Majority attackers have computing power that makes it possible to manipulate transactions resulting in the formation of blockchains. In this regard, the majority attackers prevent the completion of transactions from other miners delaying, reversing, or preventing transactions from occurring. This means that the majority of attackers end up completing their transactions and forming more blocks to achieve extended blockchains at the expense of other miners. The majority attackers thus adopt malicious, illegitimate, and unfair practices in the course of their operations to gain rewards from the market. This approach to the market needs to be prevented to ensure that all stakeholders can effectively gain from the market.
In preventing the illegitimate and unfair practices in the market, machine learning and algorithmic technology are adopted in all transactions. The technology operates under a function that evaluates the traits of every transaction to detect aspects of unfairness or illegitimacy in different transactions posted. The majority of attackers based their transactions on illegitimacy that prevents the competition of the other miners. The technology evaluates and analyzes transactions for approval or disapproval based on if they are unfair or illegitimate, respectively. This approach deters malicious majority attackers from negatively impacting the transaction of other miners. In this regard, a fair and level playing field is achieved to ensure that all the stakeholders can competitively build blockchains.
References
Bonneau, J. (2018, February). Hostile blockchain takeovers (short paper). In International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (pp. 92-100). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Budish, E. (2018). The economic limits of bitcoin and the blockchain (No. w24717). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Dey, S. (2018, September). Securing majority-attack in blockchain using machine learning and algorithmic game theory: A proof of work. In 2018 10th computer science and electronic engineering (CEEC) (pp. 7-10). IEEE.
Li, W., Andreina, S., Bohli, J. M., & Karame, G. (2017). Securing proof-of-stake blockchain protocols. In Data Privacy Management, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology (pp. 297-315). Springer, Cham.
Somdip, D. (2018). A proof of work: Securing majority-attack in blockchain using machine learning and algorithmic game theory (Doctoral dissertation, Modern Education and Computer Science Press).
