BSV Network faces empty block mining attack, exchanges to freeze block rewards

Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) is apparently facing an empty-block mining attack as it is getting bogged down after a large portion of hash power started mining blocks that don’t contain any transactions. In response to the incident, the Bitcoin Association has urged all relevant exchange platforms to freeze the block rewards linked with the attack.

Most blocks of Bitcoin SV presently don’t contain any transactions, according to Todd Price, the Curriculum Specialist for the Bitcoin Association. On the other hand, the network’s mempool, which holds transactions waiting to be included in a block, is now overflowing with millions of unprocessed transfers.

Because they might not have allotted enough RAM for persisting a mempool of this size, the various services in the ecosystem may experience problems as a result, according to Price.

Empty block attack on BSV

Miners might deliberately remove transactions from the blocks they process to slow down the network for users. This is known as an empty block attack.

Despite the fact that any miner on a proof-of-work network has the option to do this, the network’s overall performance won’t be significantly impacted unless a sizable, concentrating majority of hash power joins the attack. Additionally, it is economically irrational to carry it out because the miner loses out on transaction fee revenue.

Price further explained that the “unilateral contract” that miners are required to uphold with customers is violated by mining empty blocks. He stated that broadcasting all transactions to all nodes is a requirement of that contract.

“While the contract is not defined in a single text document, there are several pieces which together can be construed as aspects of a contractual relationship,” he added. 

It is important to note that Bitcoin SV has previously been the target of 51% attack, which allowed some transactions to be reverted.

Notably, BSV Blockchain and Saudi Arabia partnered in February to establish first regional blockchain academy, as TheCoinRise reported.