r/cardano
I've had a problem with the basic foundation of most security protocols I've learned about in various projects. Almost always, there is a statement along the lines that they make an assumption about the attacker...
Think about that statement for a moment. Ok great, your protocol can protect against this specific set of variables but right or wrong, isn't this concept presuming too much already? It's like you are setting up the rules for a board game but the attacker is preparing to play tennis.
They tend to suggest that an attack on _____ would be cost prohibiting and not benefit the attacker, be that in hardware costs, transaction fee costs, costs of other resources etc.
Ok well maybe not a positive return in value on their stake but maybe they are willing to pay a price to harm the network and the protocol for other reasons. What about a malicious competitor, government, rich fundamentalist etc.
I'm thinking outside the box maybe but what if it cost me 1M dollars to attack a project in some way that exposes a weakness in a protocol, but I stand to make 2M on shorting the price of the project when it subsequently falls as a result of that attack? That's a pretty good and immediate return on that investment. What if I want to see a project fail and my particular competitive project see a 10x move because we won a government bid between the 2 projects?
What if I just have 1M to burn and I hate _________ so much I want to punch him in the face every day so I attack one of his projects just to laugh at how his BS project sucks?
I'm trying to consider the value of security protocols and for the most part I feel I'm on board with Cardano's provably secure POS system, but I feel I need to review everything because I've always had a problem with the foundation of almost every proposal in making assumptions about an attacker. I would much rather see a protocol that can not be attacked under any circumstance, however improbable. I think sacrificing security on a losing attack is the right sacrifice if there has to be one, but that still means there is a way to attack the protocol.
Is anyone able to answer this or point me to the specific resources they know about that would certainly answer this question for me? Especially for Cardano..
https://www.reddit.com/r/cardano/comments/8om0vy/proof_of_stake_security_issue_assumptions_about/