The Noncesense archival network employs custom daemons that collect unique empricial data for research purposes, currently deployed on the Monero and Loki networks.
The archival network is a FOSS product of Noncesense Research Lab. See our website at https://noncesense-research-lab.github.io/ for latest contact information. We look forward to your contributions and ideas.
Archival daemon development: NeptuneResearch
Server support: gingeropolous, Isthmus, and SerHack
Prior to the Noncesense archival network (previously known as the Monero Archival Project) there was no known resources that archived the content of orphaned blocks or alternative chains on most CryptoNote currencies. The total absence of this data precluded analyses that are critical for monitoring the ecosystem and empirically studying mining and network phenomena. Since these types of records are not on the blockchain itself, they are lost to the sands of time unless intentionally preserved. The Noncesense archival network's central mission is to ensure that we are always collecting and analyzing this key information.
The Noncesense archival network employs custom archival daemons that collect data from orphaned blocks/chains along with notes from the node itself. Nodes are deployed globally using virtual private servers (VPS) to capture a broader view of the network and enable representative analyses.
Analysis of archival records allows us to answer several questions:
- How frequently are multiple versions of the same block mined?
- What fraction of these alternative blocks result in reorganization?
- Are the observed intervals between alternative blocks explained by any particular function? A Poisson distribution has been suggested as the theoretical expectation. How well does the model match observations? What are the parameters of, and deviations from, the distribution function model?
Miners can arbitrarily choose the timestamps that they include in the block, so MAP retains both the miner-reported timestamp (MRT) and the node-receipt timestamp (NRT). Comparison of the timestamps in the block against the timestamps when the block was received will reveal how often the miner-reported timestamps are spoofed.
Similarly, we can look for signs of selfish mining based on the timing with which blocks are received. Ittay Eyal and Emin Gün Sirer point out that "One could detect this [phenomenon] by looking at the timestamps on successive blocks in the blockchain. Since mining is essentially an independent random process, we'd expect the interblock time gap to be exponentially distributed. Any deviation from this expectation would be suggestive of selfish mining."
Data from geographically-distributed MAP nodes can be used to study network connectivity and latency. With each new transaction or block broadcast, we can watch the the route(s) and speed with which it propogates across the globe.
Logs that record the content of orphaned blocks can be used to ascertain whether a given alternative block was benign (e.g. arising from network latency) or maliciously presented (e.g. attempting a double-spend attack).
When two contradictory blocks naturally arise, transaction duplication is expected since both miners draw from the same memory pool. In the case that two miners independently mine the same transaction, the {ring members, key image, receiving stealth address} will be mirrored in the two blocks.
If two versions of a transaction are generated, they will have the same key image, but different one-time recipient stealth address, and different cryptographic signatures. This could occur benignly, if a user regenerates the transaction to the same address (creating a new one-time address in the process). It could also represent a transaction that is being revised to spend to a different recipient. If a double-spend attack is attempted (with or without majority, with or without success), the miner will necessarily have to include a transaction with the same key image, but a different receiving stealth address and signature. While this might happen occasionally due to wallets or users refreshing transactions, an alternative block with several redirected transactions strongly suggests an intentional attempted double-spend attack.
We have several plans for making this type of data common and accessible.
- Data presentation on a web dashboard that allows interactive exploration of archival network data products such as navigation of alternative chans, empirical analytics, and a global view of broadcast propogation.
- Integration into main Monero codebase as an opt-in daemon setting for users that wish to collect archival data for R & D purposes.
The documents directory in this repository contains the roadmap, information for accessing our nodes, specifications, and miscellaneous notes.
The analyses directory includes some preliminary results.
Archival daemon code is available at: https://github.com/neptuneresearch/monerod-archive
There was a fork at height 1592780, and both sides have been archived
{
"major_version": 7,
"minor_version": 7,
"timestamp": 1528736759,
"prev_id": "1d4db93917bc6bd16061bcfb638c7dccd8dfa5eb8972412aef421438798d15b3",
"nonce": 518482,
"miner_tx": {
"version": 2,
"unlock_time": 1592840,
"vin": [ {
"gen": {
"height": 1592780
}
}
],
"vout": [ {
"amount": 4534453164784,
"target": {
"key": "4be69660f709234dad518051f5a6d56c01fe81e20afbadbfaa64f6059acfe23b"
}
}
],
"extra": [ 1, 201, 244, 41, 165, 3, 194, 90, 48, 85, 90, 71, 17, 186, 121, 100, 157, 19, 98, 96, 224, 50, 23, 102, 183, 113, 12, 19, 105, 36, 119, 25, 85, 2, 8, 0, 0, 3, 173, 20, 1, 0, 0
],
"rct_signatures": {
"type": 0
}
},
"tx_hashes": [ "dd6c105d72656e6f9b027a5d0cff9f571c4c8ed75e63509906eabb4dca76ce63", "83b49efb4f5c7938393821bd647c99e9895f20e5e49595ea8a7ed15eb6bc0898", "a37cbcf9fb9a548af32762830890766b4c3126b48a122edb780906a72ff8a03d", "e4bcb887cf6619de9572db3adc2b4fa2ad23b56b7ba11806c08fc3fc88e658dc", "84ef89e6bdb56e63588905142835b371623be4eb6845826ac21c423034dd026f", "fc9f8dfb619a90ea4c755028258315339452979ab056235d8bcfe626cf346084", "f26fd8b663e085040cc65c8c0e8f56238235243c631791b07d2986d0e50f3156", "1083ff3b9b67a193cc2c47b251c8b3facc47e77932d4e1d39c631d7f01fabfc5", "f2db3f41623110dfd17c2ff67c01dfcd2e040cae6269e6fcef11976b467f92d2", "689739ded0aef480c8b149e126aa84685a0eceaa624db9044d0382c07395a86b", "ed1b9d15303f84fc16e0e4b7454bed759390c47634faaae6e87387d2b2a04fa9", "888a91550442d06288c2778e6ce67ed1d392fc451d4c1783c5a2a27a89265d17", "0a37ac74ec6751441b3a364c443c1519f961e79d92f92cfd2588cf5a309bd6a1", "010855970bee8a4e24bb462bf5df62c8fe53c9a3aafa04c0dfdd7f36c6d647d7", "655b211fa826a0035637a6cb637abb3cc7d321c40ceaa21d6aff472745e5ea5c"
]
}
{
"major_version": 7,
"minor_version": 7,
"timestamp": 1528736759,
"prev_id": "1d4db93917bc6bd16061bcfb638c7dccd8dfa5eb8972412aef421438798d15b3",
"nonce": 699007682,
"miner_tx": {
"version": 2,
"unlock_time": 1592840,
"vin": [ {
"gen": {
"height": 1592780
}
}
],
"vout": [ {
"amount": 4534453164784,
"target": {
"key": "85b4261a79211cb9c1f69cf16ee2832c2ae8ef4d626644a77918b3a1ff6359de"
}
}
],
"extra": [ 1, 121, 206, 76, 251, 36, 153, 28, 209, 147, 253, 221, 39, 132, 163, 152, 94, 212, 35, 113, 152, 0, 254, 192, 94, 139, 21, 75, 25, 141, 73, 34, 180, 2, 17, 0, 0, 1, 188, 101, 203, 84, 173, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
],
"rct_signatures": {
"type": 0
}
},
"tx_hashes": [ "dd6c105d72656e6f9b027a5d0cff9f571c4c8ed75e63509906eabb4dca76ce63", "83b49efb4f5c7938393821bd647c99e9895f20e5e49595ea8a7ed15eb6bc0898", "a37cbcf9fb9a548af32762830890766b4c3126b48a122edb780906a72ff8a03d", "e4bcb887cf6619de9572db3adc2b4fa2ad23b56b7ba11806c08fc3fc88e658dc", "84ef89e6bdb56e63588905142835b371623be4eb6845826ac21c423034dd026f", "fc9f8dfb619a90ea4c755028258315339452979ab056235d8bcfe626cf346084", "f26fd8b663e085040cc65c8c0e8f56238235243c631791b07d2986d0e50f3156", "1083ff3b9b67a193cc2c47b251c8b3facc47e77932d4e1d39c631d7f01fabfc5", "f2db3f41623110dfd17c2ff67c01dfcd2e040cae6269e6fcef11976b467f92d2", "689739ded0aef480c8b149e126aa84685a0eceaa624db9044d0382c07395a86b", "ed1b9d15303f84fc16e0e4b7454bed759390c47634faaae6e87387d2b2a04fa9", "888a91550442d06288c2778e6ce67ed1d392fc451d4c1783c5a2a27a89265d17", "0a37ac74ec6751441b3a364c443c1519f961e79d92f92cfd2588cf5a309bd6a1", "010855970bee8a4e24bb462bf5df62c8fe53c9a3aafa04c0dfdd7f36c6d647d7", "655b211fa826a0035637a6cb637abb3cc7d321c40ceaa21d6aff472745e5ea5c"
]
}
Since the transaction hashes match between the two blocks, no transactions were re-routed. Thus we can infer that this was an accident, and not a double-spend attack.