How Can Network Monitoring Detect the Initial Stages of a Selfish Mining Attack?

Network monitoring can detect selfish mining by observing an unusually high rate of orphaned or stale blocks, particularly those that are part of a sudden, short chain reorganization. A selfish miner's block withholding and reveal strategy leads to a statistically higher number of orphaned blocks for honest miners.

Monitoring the variance in block discovery times and the frequency of chain reorgs can signal the start of the attack.