Method for adjusting mining difficulty of a cryptocurrency blockchain system by monitoring malicious forks and implementing a miners blockchain

A cryptocurrency mining method implemented in a cryptocurrency miner, the miner comprising processing hardware executing computer-usable programs, the miner being connected to a plurality of other miners by a cryptocurrency network, the method comprising:

• (a) storing a copy of a cryptocurrency blockchain, the cryptocurrency blockchain containing a plurality of blocks linked to one another forming a chain, each block containing cryptocurrency transaction data and a hash of its immediate previous block;
• (b) performing mining operation using a first mining difficulty index to add blocks to the cryptocurrency blockchain;
• (c) after adding a predefined number of blocks to the cryptocurrency blockchain, detecting any malicious fork in the cryptocurrency blockchain that forks at any one of the predefined number of blocks previous to a last block on the cryptocurrency blockchain, a malicious fork being a forked branch of the cryptocurrency blockchain where all blocks in the branch were generated by a same miner, and reaching a consensus with other miners regarding whether any malicious fork in the cryptocurrency blockchain has been detected;
• and
• (d) in response to the consensus that no malicious fork is detected in the malicious fork detection process in step (c), repeating steps (b) and (c);
• and
• (e) in response to the consensus that a malicious fork is detected in the malicious fork detection process in step (c):
• (e1) severing the malicious fork from the cryptocurrency blockchain;
• (e2) thereafter, for a predefined time period, performing mining operation using a second mining difficulty index to add blocks to the cryptocurrency blockchain, without performing the malicious fork detection process, the second mining difficulty index being more difficult than the first mining difficulty index;
• and
• (e3) after the predefined time period, repeating steps (b) and (c).

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program code embedded therein for controlling a computer, the computer being connected to a plurality of other computers by a cryptocurrency network, the computer readable program code configured to cause the computer to execute a cryptocurrency mining to:

• (a) obtain a copy of a cryptocurrency main blockchain, the main blockchain containing a plurality of blocks linked to one another forming a chain, each block containing cryptocurrency transaction data and a hash of its immediate previous block;
• (b) obtain a copy of a miners' blockchain, the miners' blockchain containing a plurality of FeedBlocks linked to one another forming a chain, the miners' blockchain being separate from the main blockchain, each FeedBlock of the miners' blockchain containing a timestamp, a hash of an immediate previous FeedBlock on the miners' blockchain, an address of a last-checked-for-fork block on the main blockchain which is a latest block on the main blockchain at a time the FeedBlock was created, the reduced mining difficulty index, a malicious-fork-detected flag which is a true/false flag that indicates whether a malicious fork has been detected, and a hash of the FeedBlock which is a hash of all contents of the FeedBlock except the timestamp;
• (c) perform mining operation using the reduced mining difficulty index to add blocks to the main blockchain;
• (d) after adding a predefined number of blocks to the main blockchain, perform a malicious fork detection process to:
• (d1) obtain the address of the last-checked-for-fork block on the main blockchain from the last FeedBlock;
• (d2) detect any malicious fork in the main blockchain that forks at or after the last-checked-for-fork block, a malicious fork being a forked branch of the main blockchain where all blocks in the branch were generated by a same miner;
• and
• (d3) add a new FeedBlock to the miners' blockchain, the new FeedBlock containing a timestamp, a hash of an immediate previous FeedBlock on the miners' blockchain, an address of a last-checked-for-fork block on the main blockchain which is a latest block on the main blockchain at a time the new FeedBlock is created, a reduced mining difficulty index, a malicious-fork-detected flag which is a true/false flag that indicates whether a malicious fork has been detected in step (d2), and a hash of the new FeedBlock which is a hash of all contents of the new FeedBlock except the timestamp;
• (e) in response to no malicious fork being detected in the malicious fork detection process in step (d), repeat steps (c) and (d);
• and
• (f) in response to a malicious fork being detected in the malicious fork detection process in step (d):
• (f1) sever the malicious fork from the main blockchain;
• (f2) thereafter, for a predefined time period, perform mining operation using a default mining difficulty index to add blocks to the main blockchain, without performing the malicious fork detection process, the default mining difficulty index being more difficult than the reduced mining difficulty index;
• and
• (f3) after the predefined time period, repeat steps (c) and (d).