Stake Grinding Attack And It's Effect On The Blockchain Network

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Hello fam,

INTRODUCTION

It is your favourite blogger @mato445 and I count it all joy to come before this great community today to discuss on this interesting cryptocurrency topic.

Please continue this journey with me as we begin on stake grinding attack and it's effect on the blockchain.

Stake grinding attack is practically one of the many different types of security threats and risks that are well known in the world of decentralized financing to take advantage of the different vulnerabilities and imperfections in the mechanisms and cryptographic protocols of blockchain networks.

The stake grinding attack is one that targets and means ti take advantage and exploit blockchain networks that operate on the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, the proof of stake is kind of consensus mechanism that allow validators to mine new blocks by staking their assets as collateral.

The stake grinding attack is propagated by manipulating or cheating the method or process in which these validators are selected so as to end up being picked, in this post, I am going to be explaining and discussing the significant effects and impacts of the stake grinding attack on the blockchain network.

• LEADS TO CENTRALIZATION OF POWER

A successfully executed and propagated stake grinding attack causes blockchain networks to loose one of the most fundamental features which they are known for and that is its decentralized nature, this effect therefore can be considered to be one of the most significant effect of a blockchain network that suffers from or is victim to a stake grinding attack.

How the stake grinding attack causes centralization of power in a blockchain network that operates on proof of stake consensus mechanism is by manipulating the mechanism put in place to select validators to pick them multiple times making their controls and computational power in the network more than the majority.

The effects of this centralization of validating power in the blockchain network is not new to any of us, it is the same as what can be seen in the traditional financial sector where power is centralized, it can compromise the integrity of the mining process further compromise security and perhaps lead to censorship.

• INCREASED TRANSACTION FEES

The networks inability to ensure tight and perfect security to its users or regulate the networks transaction fees, makes the users and participants view the network as unreliable, users are likely to prioritize transactions to ensure they are processed quickly and securely additionally too, increased or higher fees will deter and discourage participation in that blockchain network.

Increase in transaction processing fees has been known to be caused and triggered by stake grinding attack it is one of its significant effects, basically in the event of a stake grinding attack the ability of the blockchain network to operate efficiently and ensure security and integrity of transactions will be diminished and as a result validators will focus their resources in validating transactions with higher fees hence causing an increase in transaction fees.

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• INCREASED FORK AND CHAIN SPLIT

Forks in the context of blockchain networks can simply be defined as the splitting of a chain in the blockchain network to form two the same chain, the creation of forks and chain splits can have very drastic effect on a blockchain especially when it is done frequently can significantly reduce the network's stability.

Forks and chain splits can occur naturally on a blockchain network, when validators of the network disagree on the state of the blockchain network however, in a stake grinding attack, attackers take advantage of this and causes forks and chain split in the network very frequently, too frequently.

When there are many the same type of chains in the blockchain network propagated by a stake grinding attack, there is competition amongst the chains and it leads to the confusion of the users seeing as they don't know which is the original chain and which is the fork.

• DECREASES TRUST AND TAINTS REPUTATION

Importance of trust between a financial institution be decentralized like cryptocurrency or centralized cannot be overemphasized, just like any attack that compromises a network's security of performance the stake grinding attack diminishes or reduces the trust users have in blockchain networks, further destroying the reputation of the affected blockchain network.

Destroying the trust users or participants have in the blockchain network is an effect that hits very hard, I say this owing to the fact that trust once lost might never be regained because there is no clean slate in this digital world of ours plus the financial world and digital market is very competitive making it impossible for a blockchain network to rebuild trust or reputation.

CONCLUSION

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In conclusion, I would like to say a very big thank to everyone who made the effort to read and go through this post which I have made, and I hope that you all were able to learn something new from what I was able to explain about the effects of a stake grinding attack.

Leading to centralization of power, increasing transaction processing fees, increased chain and fork split and finally decreases trust and taints reputation are some of the effects of stake grinding attack on the blockchain network which I discussed in the paragraphs above.