CoinDesk Podcast Network BITCOIN SEASON 2: The Bitcoin Attack You Haven't Heard About
May 28, 2025
Portland HODL, a Bitcoin researcher at Marathon Digital Holdings, dives into the alarming threat of 'poison blocks.' These malicious blocks can freeze Bitcoin nodes for hours, creating exploitable opportunities for miners. He explains how this vulnerability impacts the network's integrity and discusses potential fixes through the Great Consensus Cleanup. The conversation also covers the balance between transaction speed and network security, emphasizing the need for collaboration in overcoming these challenges to secure Bitcoin's future.
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Bitcoin's Poison Block Threat
- Bitcoin nodes can be paralyzed by "poison blocks" that take excessive time to validate.
- This vulnerability offers miners a chance to attack the network profitably by slowing others down.
Bitcoin Blocks as Delivery Trucks
- Bitcoin blocks are like trucks shipping 1MB of transactions every 10 minutes.
- Poison blocks overload nodes with heavy signature validations, slowing the network down.
Mining Impact of Poison Blocks
- Miners must quickly validate new blocks to avoid wasting energy on stale work.
- Poison blocks cause nodes and miners to stall, causing major inefficiencies and block orphaning.