Dust Attack And It's Consequences On The Blockchain Network

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INTRODUCTION

Dust attack, this is basically a type of cryptocurrency attack, one out of the many cryptocurrency or digital attack, in this attack the attacker sends small amounts of cryptocurrency, known as "dust," to many or large number of addresses, the aim of doing this is basically is so as to use the movements of these dust track them so as to determine sensitive information of the address owners.

Additionally, the dust attacks exploit and take advantage of the fact that the blockchain transactions are transparent and open to everyone in the public and as a result making it difficult to distinguish between the transactions made by legitimate users or the ones made by attackers for the purpose of carrying out malicious attacks that in turn lead to network congestion, increase in transaction fees and so on.

In this post of mine I am going to be explaining and discussing some of the many different challenges and consequences the dust attack poses to blockchain networks, and how it makes it hard and challenging for the blockchain network to maintain its integrity, reputation and ensure the privacy of its users.

• DESTROYS ANONYMITY

Anonymity basically refers to the state of something being unknown or unidentified by others, and when it comes to the blockchain network and when dealing with cryptocurrency, anonymity basically ensures that users have the opportunity to use the cryptocurrency and blockchain network to execute transactions without sharing their real identity.

So the blockchain technology basically has certain features and mechanisms that allows it to be able to offer to its users anonymity therefore in carrying out the dust attack, attackers exploits the little or minute cryptocurrency known as dust in tracking and determining information in which users depended on the blockchain to makevanonymous and remain so.

• NETWORK CONGESTION

Network congestion is basically a type or kind of disruption in the normal operation of blockchain networks, this kind of disruption basically occurs when the blockchain network is flooded with very high amount or volume of dust transactions which causes the efficiency or speed with which transaction is being processed in the network to reduce thus, affecting the overall performance of the blockchain network.

Additionally, since network congestion leads to a significant decrease in transaction processing time, it can be very challenging most especially when the participants and users are depending on the normal fast and swift nature of the blockchain network and how it swiftly executes, processes and confirm transaction, this delays can therefore make the users to lose trust, suffer financial losses and see the blockchain network as nomlonger reliable.

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• INCREASED TRANSACTION FEES

Another challenge that the dust attack imposes on the blockchain network, is that the dust attack has the potential to significantly increase the cost of processing and executing transaction, this is a concept that is sure to occur when the dust attack basically causes or leads to network congestion when the networks speed in processing transactions becomes low the service of processing transactions becomes scarce and in this scarcity there will be increase in transaction processing cost.

Moreover, flooding the blockchain network with dusts can cause users to want to reward and incentivize the miners and validators to prioritize their own transactions this is a very critical challenge for the blockchain network as well as the users who are affected and once the dust in their addresses and wallets have been detected and removed which will come at a significant financial cost which will be stressful for both the users and the network.

• DIMINISHES BLOCKCHAIN RESOURCES

Another challenge of the dust attack is faced or dealt with during the aftermath of a successfully launched and executed dust attack, and that challenge is basically in the computational resources and financial resources which will be required by both the individual users and the blockchain network itself basically for creating and implementing mechanisms to scan, detect and remove dust from the blockchain network as well improve the security protocols of the network to make it robust and immune to any other attempts of the dust attack.

The different affected users and participants will have to make out time and effort to determine, improve and change whatever sensitive information or data which must have been compromised during the dust attack, as well as using wallets with more secure and advanced security protocols so as to prevent any risk of falling victim or being targeted in the future.

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CONCLUSION

To round it all up I would like to first say a very big thank to everyone who practically made the effort to read and go through this post of mine, and that I hope that you have been able to learn something new as I have basically explained and discussed the challenges which the dust attack creates for blockchain networks.