When is Slower Block Propagation More Profitable for Large Miners?

ePrint Report: When is Slower Block Propagation More Profitable for Large Miners?

Zhichun Lu, Ren Zhang

For years, Bitcoin miners put little effort into adopting several widely-acclaimed block acceleration techniques, which, as some argued, would secure their revenues. Their indifference inspires a theory that slower block propagation is beneficial for some miners. In this study, we analyze and confirm this counterintuitive theory. Specifically, by modeling inadvertent slower blocks, we show that a mining coalition that controls more than a third …

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