Apparatus and method for distinguishing between legitimate and malicious branches of a split blockchain

A method of distinguishing between a legitimate branch of a split blockchain and a malicious branch of the split blockchain, the method comprising:

• determining a first measure of difficulty for a first branch of the split blockchain;
• determining a second measure of difficulty for a second branch of the split blockchain;
• and
• identifying one of the first branch and the second branch as the legitimate branch based on a comparison of the first measure of difficulty and the second measure of difficulty;
• wherein the second measure of difficulty in based on:
• a measure of block generation frequency ri of each node that mined for the split blockchain during a window W;
• and
• a measure of difficulty d for each block k included in the window W.

An apparatus for distinguishing between a legitimate branch of a split blockchain and a malicious branch of the split blockchain, the apparatus comprising:

• a non-transitory memory;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
• determine a first measure of difficulty for a first branch of the split blockchain;
• determine a second measure of difficulty for a second branch of the split blockchain;
• and
• identify one of the first branch and the second branch as the legitimate branch based on a comparison of the first measure of difficulty and the second measure of difficulty;
• wherein the first measure of difficulty is based on:
• a measure of block generation frequency ri of each node that mined for the split blockchain during a window W;
• and
• a measure of difficulty d for each block k included in the window W.

An apparatus for distinguishing between a legitimate branch of a split blockchain and a malicious branch of the split blockchain, the apparatus comprising:

• a difficulty module configured to determine a first measure of difficulty for a first branch of the split blockchain, and determine a second measure of difficulty for a second branch of the split blockchain;
• and
• an identification module configured to identify one of the first branch and the second branch as the legitimate branch based on a comparison of the first measure of difficulty and the second measure of difficulty,
• wherein the first measure of difficulty is based on:
• a measure of block generation frequency ri of each node that mined for the split blockchain during a window W;
• and
• a measure of difficulty d for each block k included in the window W.