BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//pretalx//cfp.protocol.berlin//protocol-berg-v2//talk//GM38KT
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:CET
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:20001029T040000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10
TZNAME:CET
TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:20000326T030000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=3
TZNAME:CEST
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0200
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:pretalx-protocol-berg-v2-GM38KT@cfp.protocol.berlin
DTSTART;TZID=CET:20250613T153000
DTEND;TZID=CET:20250613T155000
DESCRIPTION:Proof-of-stake consensus protocols often rely on distributed ra
 ndomness beacons (DRBs) to generate randomness for leader selection. This 
 work analyses the manipulability of Ethereum's DRB implementation\, RANDAO
 \, in its current consensus mechanism. Even with its efficiency\, RANDAO r
 emains vulnerable to manipulation through the deliberate omission of block
 s from the canonical chain. Previous research has shown that economically 
 rational players can withhold blocks - known as a block withholding attack
  or selfish mixing - when the manipulated RANDAO outcome yields greater fi
 nancial rewards.\n\nWe introduce and evaluate a new manipulation strategy\
 , the RANDAO forking attack. Unlike block withholding\, whereby validators
  opt to hide a block\, this strategy relies on selectively forking out an 
 honest proposer's block to maximize transaction fee revenues and block rew
 ards. \nIn this paper\, we draw attention to the fact that the forking att
 ack is significantly more harmful than selfish mixing for two reasons. Fir
 stly\, it exacerbates the unfairness among validators. More importantly\, 
 it significantly undermines the reliability of the blockchain for the aver
 age user by frequently causing already published blocks to be forked out. 
 By doing so\, the attacker can fork the chain without losing slots\, and w
 e demonstrate that these are later fully compensated for. Our empirical me
 asurements\, investigating such manipulations on Ethereum mainnet\, reveal
 ed no statistically significant traces of these attacks to date.
DTSTAMP:20260414T220628Z
LOCATION:Cinema 6
SUMMARY:Forking the RANDAO: Manipulating Ethereum’s Distributed Randomnes
 s Beacon - István András Seres
URL:https://cfp.protocol.berlin/protocol-berg-v2/talk/GM38KT/
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR