Distributed Ledger Technology for IoT: Parasite Chain Attacks

TL;DR

This paper analyzes parasite chain attacks on DAG-based distributed ledgers in IoT, specifically focusing on IOTA, and proposes an extension to improve resistance against such attacks.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of parasite chain attacks on DAG ledgers and introduces an extension to enhance ledger security against these attacks.

Findings

The efficacy of IOTA's MCMC algorithm is evaluated.

An extension improves resistance to parasite chain attacks.

Analysis highlights vulnerabilities in DAG-based ledgers.

Abstract

Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) based Distributed Ledgers can be useful in a number of applications in the IoT domain. A distributed ledger should serve as an immutable and irreversible record of transactions, however, a DAG structure is a more complicated mathematical object than its blockchain counterparts, and as a result, providing guarantees of immutability and irreversibility is more involved. In this paper, we analyse a commonly discussed attack scenario known as a parasite chain attack for the IOTA Foundation DAG based ledger. We analyse the efficacy of IOTA core MCMC algorithm using a matrix model and present an extension which improves the ledger resistance to these attacks.