What is the Context of Attack Cost?

'Attack Cost' is a critical metric discussed when assessing the security posture of various blockchain networks and decentralized applications. News outlets often report on security vulnerabilities where the estimated attack cost is relatively low, prompting concerns about network integrity. Understanding this concept is vital for evaluating the robustness of different blockchain protocols and the safety of digital assets operating on them.

Attack Cost

Definition

This refers to the financial or computational resources required to successfully execute a malicious action against a blockchain network or protocol. It quantifies the expense involved in an attack, such as a 51% attack or a smart contract exploit. A higher attack cost generally indicates greater network security and resilience against such threats.

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∞Economic Stability

∞Staking Layer

∞Primary Chain

Formalizing Shared Security Risk via Adaptive Slashing Mechanisms

Adaptive Slashing Bonds formally quantify systemic risk in shared security protocols, enabling provably secure restaking architectures.

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∞Distributed Systems

∞Cryptoeconomics

∞Adversarial Cost

Formalizing Economic Security with Expensive to Attack in Absence of Collapse

A new EAAC property formally quantifies the economic security of consensus, proving that targeted slashing is only possible under strong synchronous network assumptions.

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∞Permissionless Consensus

∞Slashing Mechanisms

∞Protocol Resilience

Formalizing Permissionless Consensus Economic Security with Attack Cost Metrics

This research introduces a novel economic security framework, the EAAC property, to rigorously quantify attack costs in permissionless blockchains, ensuring protocol resilience.

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∞Attack Cost

∞Blockchain Theory

∞Cryptoeconomics

Formally Defining Economic Security for Permissionless Consensus

This research establishes a foundational framework for analyzing the economic security of blockchain consensus protocols, quantifying attack costs to enable more robust designs.

Attack Cost

Definition

Context

Formalizing Shared Security Risk via Adaptive Slashing Mechanisms

Formalizing Economic Security with Expensive to Attack in Absence of Collapse

Formalizing Permissionless Consensus Economic Security with Attack Cost Metrics

Formally Defining Economic Security for Permissionless Consensus

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