How Does a Delayed Block Finality Mechanism Help Defend against Double-Spends?
A delayed block finality mechanism requires a much higher number of confirmations (e.g. 100 or more) before a transaction is considered irreversible or "final." For an attacker to successfully double-spend, they must secretly mine a longer chain that overcomes this high confirmation threshold.
This significantly increases the cost and time required for the attack, making it economically unviable for most small-scale attackers. It forces exchanges to wait longer before crediting deposits.
Glossar
Delayed Finality Mechanisms
Protocol ⎊ Delayed Finality Mechanisms are architectural designs within a blockchain consensus protocol that intentionally defer the absolute, irreversible confirmation of a transaction for a specified period or number of subsequent blocks.
Delayed Block Finality
Confirmation ⎊ Delayed Block Finality represents the period following initial block propagation where transaction immutability remains probabilistic, necessitating a waiting period for sufficient network confirmations to mitigate reversion risks.
Block Finality Mechanism
Attestation ⎊ Block finality mechanisms represent a critical evolution in distributed ledger technology, shifting consensus from probabilistic to deterministic states, thereby mitigating risks associated with chain reorganizations.