lightning-dev

Griefing-Penalty: A proposal for mitigating Griefing Attack

Griefing-Penalty: A proposal for mitigating Griefing Attack

Original Postby Subhra Mazumdar

Posted on: May 30, 2020 14:52 UTC

In an email exchange between Subhra Mazumdar and ZmnSCPxj, the former responds to feedback on a proposal for mitigating reverse-griefing in Lightning Network.

ZmnSCPxj asks about mechanisms that protect against the myopic strategy and raises concerns about time discounting, counterparty risk, and cheap pseudonyms that make reverse-griefing more attractive than honest behavior. In response, Subhra Mazumdar explains how honest-rational parties would still follow the protocol as the profit earned by processing several transactions is greater than the profit earned by reverse-griefing. Additionally, they suggest adding extra measures, such as an extra round before initiating the lock phase and having two hashes in the off-chain contract for normal payment and error, to prevent reverse-griefing. The email exchange also touches upon the encumbrance of RSMC, the waiting time involved in earning the penalty, and channel closure.