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.
Glossar
Cryptographic Commitment
Mechanism ⎊ A cryptographic commitment, within decentralized finance, establishes a state verifiable on-chain without revealing the committed value, crucial for applications like atomic swaps and zero-knowledge proofs.
Checkpointing
Finality ⎊ Checkpointing is a mechanism in Proof-of-Stake protocols designed to establish transaction finality by creating irreversible points in the blockchain history.
Deep Reorgs
Trigger ⎊ Deep reorgs, within cryptocurrency and derivatives markets, represent substantial, often unexpected, alterations to a blockchain’s historical record, typically stemming from contentious hard forks or significant protocol upgrades.
Finality Gadgets
Concept ⎊ Finality gadget refers to a mechanism or component within a blockchain protocol designed to provide stronger, often cryptographically guaranteed, transaction finality.