Rewriting History: A Brief Introduction to Long Range Attacks | by Evangelos Deirmentzoglou | Positive Web3

Proof of Stake protocols are in the spotlight as more and more high-profile blockchains attempt to switch over from Proof of Work protocols. Many of them explore the option of hybrid systems (PoW/PoS) while others aim for a pure PoS implementations. One of the greatest threats against Proof of Stake protocols is Long Range attacks. Due to the existence of Weak Subjectivity and Costless Simulation, these attacks are more dangerous than in Proof of Work protocols. During my research on the topic, I found that information about Long Range attacks is sparse and a lot of times misleading. Even when diving into academic papers, at times I was not able to understand the very nature of this attack group. Below you will find my attempt to fledge out Long Range attacks. In short, a Long Range attack is a scenario where an adversary creates a branch on the blockchain starting from the Genesis block and overtakes the main chain. This branch may contain different transactions and blocks and is also

Proof of Stake protocols are in the spotlight as more and more high-profile blockchains attempt to switch over from Proof of Work protocols. Many of them explore the option of hybrid systems (PoW/PoS) while others aim for a pure PoS implementations. One of the greatest threats against Proof of Stake protocols is Long Range attacks. Due to the existence of Weak Subjectivity and Costless Simulation, these attacks are more dangerous than in Proof of Work protocols. During my research on the topic, I found that information about Long Range attacks is sparse and a lot of times misleading. Even when