What Is a ‘Time-Warp Attack’ and How Does It Relate to PoW Difficulty Adjustments?

A time-warp attack is a method used by a malicious miner to exploit flaws in a blockchain's difficulty adjustment algorithm (DAA). By manipulating the timestamps of blocks, the attacker can force the DAA to calculate a much lower difficulty than it should be.

This allows them to mine blocks much faster and cheaper, potentially leading to a 51% attack or a rapid inflation of the coin's supply.