Blockchain appeals to users for its high level of security, particularly in the financial industry. But that security depends on the honesty of more than half of its network, which can be changed by multiple factors.
Ning Zhang, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis' McKelvey School of Engineering, plans to develop new defense tactics for blockchain with a four-year $360,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.
Specifically, Zhang and his lab will investigate how clustered power in large mining pools, heterogeneous network connectivity and malicious peer-to-peer network link manipulation can impact fundamental blockchain security, as well as the challenge of trustworthy external data feed.
