SoK: Tools for Game Theoretic Models of Security for Cryptocurrencies

Azouvi, Sarah; Hicks, Alexander

doi:10.48550/arxiv.1905.08595

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…All the nodes in the network are rational [34], [35] 3 . Rational processes always seek to maximize their expected utility.…”

Section: System Assumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Strategic Analysis to defend against Griefing Attack in Lightning Network

Mazumdar¹,

Banerjee²,

Sinha³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Payments routed in Lightning Network are susceptible to a griefing attack. In this attack, the channels get blocked, and the affected parties cannot process any payment request. Our work is the first to analyze griefing attacks in Hashed Timelock Contract or HTLC, from a game-theoretic point of view. Using the same model, we analyze another payment protocol Hashed Timelock Contract with Griefing-Penalty or HTLC-GP, which was proposed to counter griefing attacks. We find that HTLC-GP is weakly effective in disincentivizing the attacker. To further increase the cost of attack, we introduce the concept of guaranteed minimum compensation and integrate it into HTLC-GP. This modified payment protocol is termed HTLC-GP ζ and unlike HTLC-GP, the protocol considers the participants to act rationally. By experimenting on several instances of Lightning Network, we show that the capacity locked drops to 40% in the case of HTLC-GP when the rate of griefing-penalty is set to 4.5 × 10 −5 , and 28% in the case of HTLC-GP ζ when guaranteed minimum compensation is 2.5% of the transaction amount. These results justify our claim that HTLC-GP ζ is better than HTLC-GP to counter griefing attacks.

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“…All the nodes in the network are rational [34], [35] 3 . Rational processes always seek to maximize their expected utility.…”

Section: System Assumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An attacker with budget B EX has the objective of disrupting the network by jamming the network [34] 4 . Given the budget, the attacker will be able to incentivize a certain number of nodes in the network to mount the griefing attack.…”

Section: Attacker Model and Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Analysis to defend against Griefing Attack in Lightning Network

Mazumdar¹,

Banerjee²,

Sinha³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Sections III and V. The paper features use cases of the Ethereum, Parity and Hyperledger blockchains and concludes that these systems are still far from large-scale adoption. Finally, a non-exhaustive list of related surveys with focal points ranging from smart contract execution to general blockchain applications and research perspectives includes [9], [10], [28], [39], [42], [53], [65], [80], [107], [167], [177], [186], [191].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

PREStO: A Systematic Framework for Blockchain Consensus Protocols

Leonardos

Reijsbergen

Piliouras

2020

IEEE Trans. Eng. Manage.

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The rapid evolution of the blockchain community has brought together stakeholders from fundamentally different backgrounds: cryptographers, protocol designers, software developers, startup entrepreneurs, corporate executives and investors, academics of various disciplines, and end users. The result is a diverse ecosystem, presently exemplified by the development of a wide range of different blockchain protocols. This raises questions for policy and decision makers: How do different protocols compare? What are their trade-offs? Existing efforts to survey the area reveal a fragmented terminology, and the lack of a unified framework to make the different desirable properties of blockchain protocols explicit.In this paper, we work towards bridging this gap. We evaluate protocols within a five-dimensional design space with the following axes. Optimality: does the protocol achieve its main goals? Stability: are the incentives of its participating agents well-aligned? Efficiency: is its output maximal relative to its use of resources? Robustness: can it cope when its operational assumptions are invalid or perturbed? Persistence: can it recover from catastrophic events? Based on the relevant literature, we organize the properties of existing protocols in subcategories of increasing granularity. The result is a dynamic scheme -termed the PREStO framework. Its scope is to aid the communication between stakeholders of different backgrounds, including managers and investors, and to identify research challenges and opportunities for blockchain protocols in a systematic way. We illustrate this via use cases and make a first step to understand the blockchain ecosystem through a more comprehensive lens.

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“…Moreover, ShoCard allows for the publishing of 3rd parties' certifications about user identities and their claims. 20 The Sovrin [359] identity network is an example of identity management in a public permissioned blockchain consisting of consensus nodes approved by Sovrin Foundation. Sovrin focuses on high throughput and low operational costs; however since it is a permissioned blockchain, there exists a chance that a request to join the network as a consensus node in censored.…”

Section: E Identity Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research Focusing on a Particular Layer. Finally, there is a number of survey papers that explicitly focus on specific layers: the network layer is analyzed in [272], the RSM layer (in particular smart contacts [17], [175], [120]), protocols of the consensus layer [80], [25], [383], [228], [153], [332], incentives at the consensus layer [20], [191], and application layer from the general standpoint [88] or with a focus on the IoT domain [289], [9], [311], [144].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Security Reference Architecture for Blockchains: Towards a Standardized Model for Studying Vulnerabilities, Threats, and Defenses

Homoliak,

Venugopalan,

Hum

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Due to their specific features, such as decentralization and immutability, blockchains have become popular in recent years. Blockchains are full-stack distributed systems in terms of realization, where security is a critical factor for their success. However, despite increasing popularity and adoption, there is a lack of standardized models to study security threats related to blockchains in a similar fashion as was done, e.g., in the area of cloud computing [236], [384]. To fill this gap, the main focus of our work is to systematize the knowledge about security and privacy aspects of blockchains, and thus contribute to the standardization of this domain.To this end, we propose the security reference architecture for blockchains, which utilizes a stacked model (similar to the ISO/OSI) that demonstrates the nature and hierarchy of various security and privacy threats. The model contains four layers:(1) the network layer, (2) the consensus layer, (3) the replicated state machine layer, and (4) the application layer. At each of these layers, we identify known security threats, their origin as well as mitigation techniques or countermeasures. Although a similar model has already been used in previous work to serve as a general outline of the blockchain infrastructure, we adapt it for the purpose of studying security threats in this domain. Further, we propose a blockchain-specific version of the threat-risk assessment standard ISO/IEC 15408 by embedding the stacked model into this standard. Finally, following our stacked model and its categorization, we provide an extensive survey of blockchain-oriented and related research as well as its applications.

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SoK: Tools for Game Theoretic Models of Security for Cryptocurrencies

Cited by 5 publications

References 77 publications

Strategic Analysis to defend against Griefing Attack in Lightning Network

Strategic Analysis to defend against Griefing Attack in Lightning Network

PREStO: A Systematic Framework for Blockchain Consensus Protocols

The Security Reference Architecture for Blockchains: Towards a Standardized Model for Studying Vulnerabilities, Threats, and Defenses

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