How Do ‘Checkpointing’ Mechanisms Help Prevent Malicious Reorgs?

Checkpointing involves embedding a cryptographic commitment to a specific block's hash at a certain height into the protocol or client software. This hardens the chain's history.

Nodes are instructed not to accept any chain that does not include this checkpoint, regardless of whether a longer chain exists. This effectively prevents malicious deep reorgs by setting an irreversible historical anchor for the network's consensus.