Could a malicious attacker subvert the Bitcoin network by failing to create a block?

2

I know its astronomically improbable, but say a malicious node "wins" the proof of work inherent to the Bitcoin protocol. If a malicious node simply waited indefinitely, or maliciously disconnected during the block creation process, what would the Bitcoin network do about it? If a block isn't created will the network just hang indefinitely, or is there some way of overcoming a halt like this?

Steve Mucci

Posted 2019-10-06T17:16:38.967

Reputation: 125

Possible duplicate of https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/22978/5406

Murch 2019-10-07T18:04:52.067

Answers

3

The other miners will not be aware that this malicious miner has find the correct hash(win) since he has not propagate it, so they will still try to find the correct hash and some second later one of them will find it correct and propagate it, then cycle will repeat again without anyone knowing that this malicious miner has win second before the one that has officially win it.

Saxtheowl

Posted 2019-10-06T17:16:38.967

Reputation: 1 148

Interesting. How about proof of stake?Steve Mucci 2019-10-06T17:51:40.590

There is no competition between miners in proof of stake, it depend on the implementation but for EOS for example which is Delegated proof of stake, if one of the 21 selected current "block producer" is unable or refuse to publish one of his block, the code force the next scheduled block producer to take his place.Saxtheowl 2019-10-06T17:58:35.240