Decentralization in DPoS Blockchains: Myths Vs Reality

Blockchains find numerous applications in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. This talk will discuss the security risks of the governance protocol in Delegated-Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) blockchains. We will first discuss the historical event of the first de facto blockchain takeover between the Steem and the TRON blockchain systems. A takeover in DPoS blockchains refers to an attacker controlling the supermajority of block producers and gaining immense control of the blockchain including the ability to reverse confirmed transactions and change the private keys of accounts. We will present a formal three-phase model for coin-based voting governance and discuss the takeover attack and resistance model using our rigorous analysis of the takeover attack between the TRON and Steem blockchain systems. We will then discuss our large-scale empirical study of the passive takeover resistance of DPoS blockchains. Finally, we will present our novel insights into the security of coin-based voting governance and discuss potential directions for future work on improving the takeover attack resilience of DPoS blockchains.