An examination of the economic incentives behind mining attacks, how they can lead to centralization, and which protocol or economic countermeasures make sense. Ideal for readers who want to understand both technical mechanisms and economic risks. Introduction Bitcoin relies on the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism to ensure security and decentralization. Yet both theoretical and practical analyses…
The Bitcoin network, as the bedrock of the cryptocurrency revolution, offers unparalleled security and decentralization for value transfers. However, its inherent scaling limitations, particularly the restricted transaction capacity of the base layer (around 7 transactions per second), have spurred the development of off-chain scaling solutions. The Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) stands as the most prominent…
Since the Genesis block in 2009, Bitcoin has embodied the visionary idea of a decentralized currency that operates without central authorities yet enables near‐real‐time transactions worldwide. At the heart of this concept lies a fundamental technical constraint that has persisted throughout its evolution: the block size limit. Each block in the Bitcoin blockchain originally was…
