Evaluating Checkpointing Capability against Eclipse-based Stake-Bleeding Attack in PoS Blockchain

Abstract

Eclipse-based Stake-Bleeding (ESB) attack is a kind of long-range attacks in a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain system, which can shorten the attack completion time. Researchers have quantitatively analyzed ESB attack but ignoring checkpointing defense technique, which solidifies the history of blockchain and then prevents an adversary to change the blockchain. This paper aims to investigate the capability of the checkpoint-based defense scheme in resisting ESB attack. We develop a Monte Carlo simulator to capture the dynamics of a PoS blockchain system, which is subject to ESB attack and deploys checkpoint-base defense scheme. We also develop the methods for calculating the probability of successful attack and attack profit. This simulator can be applied to evaluate the influence of ESB attack and the checkpointing capability from the perspective of honest verifiers, adversaries and victims. Our experiment results can help enhance PoS blockchain security.