Chencheng Zhou
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA, USA.

Liudong Xing
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, MA, USA.

Jun Guo
College of Software, Northeastern University, China.

Qisi Liu
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Old Dominion University, VA, USA.

DOI https://doi.org/10.33889/IJMEMS.2022.7.1.002

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Abstract

Blockchain technology has gained prominence over the last decade. Numerous achievements have been made regarding how this technology can be utilized in different aspects of the industry, market, and governmental departments. Due to the safety-critical and security-critical nature of their uses, it is pivotal to model the dependability of blockchain-based systems. In this study, we focus on Bitcoin, a blockchain-based peer-to-peer cryptocurrency system. A continuous-time Markov chain-based analytical method is put forward to model and quantify the dependability of the Bitcoin system under selfish mining attacks. Numerical results are provided to examine the influences of several key parameters related to selfish miners’ computing power, attack triggering, and honest miners’ recovery capability. The conclusion made based on this research may contribute to the design of resilience algorithms to enhance the self-defense and robustness of cryptocurrency systems.

Keywords- Bitcoin, Blockchain, Selfish mining, Continuous-time Markov chain, Dependability

Citation

Zhou, C., Xing, L., Guo, J., & Liu, Q. (2022). Bitcoin Selfish Mining Modeling and Dependability Analysis. International Journal of Mathematical, Engineering and Management Sciences, 7(1), 16-27. https://doi.org/10.33889/IJMEMS.2022.7.1.002.