Possible security flaw in pure POS coins ? - page 2.

dille71

full member

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Merit: 100

Quote from: markm on April 01, 2014, 11:14:52 AM

You need a percent of what is, at that moment, actually online doing PoS mining, I think?

Also, it is not coinage but Coin Age that you need. Not number of coins but number of coin-days, so to speak.

Two coins you have had for one day each is as good as one coin you have had for two days type of thing.

-MarkM-

Yes, thats exactly what my example is all about. I might not be very good at explaining.....

markm

legendary

Activity: 2940

Merit: 1090

You need a percent of what is, at that moment, actually online doing PoS mining, I think?

Also, it is not coinage but Coin Age that you need. Not number of coins but number of coin-days, so to speak.

Two coins you have had for one day each is as good as one coin you have had for two days type of thing.

-MarkM-

dille71

full member

Activity: 210

Merit: 100

How hard would it be to perform a 51% attack on a pure POS coin?

I hear people say "it is allmost impossible since you need to own 51% of the coins" but is that really the case?

Isn't it that one should own 51% of the current available coin age at any given time?

Lets say we have a coin with these parameters:
Total coins: 100 000 000 (virtually all in circulation)
Min coin age for staking: 24hr
Max coin age: no upper limit

Now, how mutch of these coins are elegible for staking and in wallets that is up and running at any given time?
I have no numbers but lets estimate 20%.
What would the avarage coin age be for these coins at any given time? Estimate 3 days
That gives a total staking-power (coin age * coins) at any given time of 60 000 000

If i transfer 1 000 000 coins and leave them in my wallet offline for 123 days then i will have 51% of the total staking power hence make it possible for me to perform a 51% attack.

As i said, i don't have any real numbers just estimates and they could be way wrong but if the coin doesn't have any coinage upper limit i think this is a real risk...

Topic: Possible security flaw in pure POS coins ? - page 2. (Read 952 times)