Implications of Dissemination Strategies on the Security of Distributed\n Ledgers

Abstract

This paper describes a simulation study on security attacks over Distributed\nLedger Technologies (DLTs). We specifically focus on attacks at the underlying\npeer-to-peer layer of these systems, that is in charge of disseminating\nmessages containing data and transaction to be spread among all participants.\nIn particular, we consider the Sybil attack, according to which a malicious\nnode creates many Sybils that drop messages coming from a specific attacked\nnode, or even all messages from honest nodes. Our study shows that the\nselection of the specific dissemination protocol, as well as the amount of\nconnections each peer has, have an influence on the resistance to this attack.\n