What Is the Difference between a 51 Percent Attack and a Sybil Attack?
A 51 percent attack is an attack on the consensus mechanism where a single entity gains control of more than half of the network's mining power (PoW) or staked tokens (PoS). This allows them to censor transactions or double-spend.
A Sybil attack involves creating multiple fake identities or nodes to gain disproportionate influence, often in peer-to-peer or governance systems, without necessarily controlling 51 percent of the total power.
Glossar
Consensus Mechanism
Efficacy ⎊ : The mechanism's efficacy is measured by its ability to achieve agreement on transaction ordering and state transition while maintaining a high degree of decentralization and finality.
Cost of a Sybil Attack
Vulnerability ⎊ A Sybil attack’s cost in cryptocurrency, options, and derivatives stems primarily from the erosion of trust in network consensus mechanisms, creating a vulnerability exploited through the proliferation of pseudonymous identities.
Decentralized Identity Solutions
Attestation ⎊ : The ability to cryptographically verify specific attributes of an individual or entity without revealing underlying personal data is central to this concept.
Sybil Attack
Architecture ⎊ The Sybil attack, within cryptocurrency, options trading, and financial derivatives, exploits the inherent design vulnerabilities of distributed systems reliant on identity-based consensus.
51 Percent Attack
Vulnerability ⎊ A 51 percent attack represents a critical control flaw inherent in proof-of-work blockchain consensus mechanisms, where a malicious actor gains control of more than half of the network’s hashing power.