PirlGuard – 51% Attack Protection  

Among the consensus mechanisms, Proof of Work is undeniably the most secure. The networks with the largest capitalization, Bitcoin and Ethereum, are also the most secure thanks to the Proof of Work consensus. However, even though the Proof of Work consensus is the most secure, one vulnerability could arise: 51% attacks.  

PirlGuard is a modified Proof of Work consensus algorithm inspired by the Horizen penalty system that protects the blockchain from virtually all 51% attacks. To protect the blockchain, PirlGuard penalizes any unreviewed nodes that attempt to pair with network nodes. It does this by convicting uninterested people for mining a defined amount of penalty blocks. This security measure greatly reduces the chance of a successful attack to about 0.03%.  

On March 28, 2019, PirlGuard protection was successfully activated on the Callisto Network on block number 2,135,000. To ensure a successful implementation, several tests were conducted with our partners, Stex, HitBTC, Epool, MaxhashPool and CLOPool during the implementation. Thanks to PirlGuard, Callisto is protected against 51% attacks, no successful attacks have been reported since implementation. Meanwhile, several Proof of Work blockchains that have been hit by 51% attacks, including Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin SV, and Ethereum Classic, have suffered multiple attacks, causing $9 million in losses in 2020 alone.  

ETC Core Devs Presentation - ECIP-1092 Pirlguard Presentation and Q&A

Pirl block 2,442,442 is a historical event not only for Pirl but for blockchain security in general.

As most of the Pirl community is aware the Pirl Team has been researching different ways to secure our blockchain against both ASICS and 51% attacks for several months, openly within our Discord and behind the scenes. During this time Pirl fell victim to a 51% attack along with many other blockchains.  

One of the contributing threat factors that has recently made nearly all PoW consensus mechanism Blockchains susceptible to 51% attacks has been the decline of mining profits leading to excess amounts of cheap hash power.  

Most sources available explain the complexity of those attacks and showcase PoS and 3rd party solutions as a good measure for protecting against such attacks. One solution would involve rolling back the blockchain which would still harm the miners, investors, and holders of Pirl. While a PoS consensus mechanism is also vulnerable other kinds of attacks such as “Nothing-At-Stake” attack.  

After thorough research and analysis of blockchain security methods the Pirl team did not view any of the currently available options as acceptable long-term preventable measures against these types of attacks. This left the team with the only possible choice available, to develop a new Security Protocol.

In order to understand the PirlGuard Protocol including the how and why behind Pirl developing the innovative solution, you must understand how a 51% attack works. If you are confident in your knowledge regarding the anatomy of a 51% attack feel free to skip to the“How PirlGuard works?” section of this article.  

PirlGuard’s Masternode Protection

How PirlGuard works?  

In order to disrupt the mechanics behind 51% attack that allows an attacker to be successful, we have deployed a core solution with a modified consensus algorithm that will defend our blockchain and many others in the near future from virtually all 51% attacks.  

PirlGuard System

With the PirlGuard Protocol deployed the chances of an attack succeeding are vastly reduced, the protocol is inspired by Horizen penalty system and built for Ethash. As we know once the attacker has created a longer chain through privately mining a separate chain they will then have to broadcast it to the network. Once the attacker opens their node for peering it will attempt to peer with rest of the nodes on the network, telling them that they are wrong. However, once this happens PirlGuard will drop the peer and penalize them by sentencing them to mine X amount of penalty blocks due to their un-peered mining. The amount of penalty blocks assigned depends on the amount of blocks that the malicious miner mined in private.  

Source Code: https://git.pirl.io/community/pirl    

Website: SkyPirl.tech  

Twitter: SkyPirl Official  

Telegram: SkyPirl Official

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