Selfish Crypto Mining – What is it?
The term "selfish mining" refers to the practice of extending the longest chain while keeping the blocks generated by others private. Basically, a selfish miner tries to extend his own chain until it is one step behind the public branch. This way, he collects the rewards of discarded blocks and avoids sharing them with other parties. The only downside to selfish mining is that it can cause other participants to waste resources. As a result, selfish mining is a huge threat to bitcoin and other blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. While it creates waste and decreases network performance, it also gives attackers a…
