Implementing proof-of-work (Javascript blockchain, part 2)

In my previous blog post we created a simple blockchain in Javascript to demonstrate how a blockchain works. However many people commented and said that the implementation wasn't complete and that they could still fool the system. They are correct! Our blockchain needs another mechanism to secure itself against attacks. So let's take a look at how we can do that!

This blog post is part of a whole series:

The problem

Right now we can create blocks and add them to our blockchain really quickly. And this creates 3 problems:

Clearly we need a solution for these problems. Enter: proof-of-work.

What is proof-of-work?

Proof-of-work is a mechanism that existed before the first blockchain was created. It's a simple technique that prevents abuse by requiring a certain amount of computing work. That amount of work is key to prevent spam and tampering. Spamming is no longer worth it if it requires a lot of computing power.

Bitcoin implements proof-of-work by requiring that the hash of a block starts with a specific number of zero's. This is also called the difficulty.

But hang on a minute! How can the hash of a block change? In case of Bitcoin a block contains details about a financial transaction. We sure don't want to mess with that data just to get a correct hash!

To fix this problem, blockchains add a nonce value. This is a number that gets incremented until a good hash is found. And because you cannot predict the output of a hash function, you simply have to try a lot of combinations before you get a hash that satisfies the difficulty. Looking for a valid hash (to create a new block) is also called "mining" in the cryptoworld.

In case of Bitcoin, the proof-of-work mechanism ensures that only 1 block can be added every 10 minutes. You can imagine spammers having a hard time to fool the network if they need so much compute power just to create a new block, let alone tamper with the entire chain.

Implementing proof-of-work

So how do you implement it? Let's start by modifying our block class and adding the nonce variable in it's constructor. I'll initialize it's value and set it 0.

constructor(index, timestamp, data, previousHash = '') {
this.index = index;
this.previousHash = previousHash;
this.timestamp = timestamp;
this.data = data;
this.hash = this.calculateHash();
this.nonce = 0;
}

We also need a new method that will increment the nonce until we get a valid hash. Again, this is dictated by the difficulty, so we'll receive the difficulty as a parameter:

mineBlock(difficulty) {
while (this.hash.substring(0, difficulty) !== Array(difficulty + 1).join("0")) {
this.nonce++;
this.hash = this.calculateHash();
}
console.log("BLOCK MINED: " + this.hash);
}

And finally we also need to change the calculateHash() function because right now it doesn't use the nonce variable to calculate the hash.

calculateHash() {
return SHA256(this.index +
this.previousHash +
this.timestamp +
JSON.stringify(this.data) +
this.nonce
).toString();
}

If you throw it all together you get a Block class that looks like this:

class Block {
constructor(index, timestamp, data, previousHash = '') {
this.index = index;
this.previousHash = previousHash;
this.timestamp = timestamp;
this.data = data;
this.hash = this.calculateHash();
this.nonce = 0;
}

calculateHash() {
return SHA256(this.index + this.previousHash + this.timestamp + JSON.stringify(this.data) + this.nonce).toString();
}

mineBlock(difficulty) {
while (this.hash.substring(0, difficulty) !== Array(difficulty + 1).join("0")) {
this.nonce++;
this.hash = this.calculateHash();
}
console.log("BLOCK MINED: " + this.hash);
}
}

Blockchain modifications

Now that our blocks have a nonce and can be mined, we need to make sure that our blockchain supports this new behaviour as well. Let's start by adding a new property to our blockchain to keep track of the difficulty of the chain. I'll start by setting it to 2 (meaning that the hashes of blocks should start with 2 zero's).

constructor() {
this.chain = [this.createGenesisBlock()];
this.difficulty = 2;
}

All that's left now is to change the addBlock() method so that it actually mines the block before adding it to our chain. Here we'll pass the difficulty to the block:

addBlock(newBlock) {
newBlock.previousHash = this.getLatestBlock().hash;
newBlock.mineBlock(this.difficulty);
this.chain.push(newBlock);
}

And that's it! Our blockchain now has proof-of-work and protection against spam and attempts to tamper with it.

Testing it

Let's now test our blockchain and see what effects proof-of-work has on adding new blocks to our chain. I'll use the same code as before. We'll start by creating a new instance of our blockchain and then adding 2 simple blocks to it.

let savjeeCoin = new Blockchain();

console.log('Mining block 1');
savjeeCoin.addBlock(new Block(1, "20/07/2017", { amount: 4 }));

console.log('Mining block 2');
savjeeCoin.addBlock(new Block(2, "20/07/2017", { amount: 8 }));

If you run this, you'll see that adding new blocks is still very fast. That's because the difficulty is only set to 2 (and because computers are really fast).

If you increase the difficulty to 5, you'll see that a modern computer takes about 10 seconds to mine a block. Increase it further and you'll have a great protection from attackers.

Disclaimer

Just as before a quick warning: this is by no means a complete blockchain implementation. It still lacks many features (like a P2P network). This is just to show how blockchains work internally.

Also: mining blocks in Javascript is not really fast because it just uses a single thread.

Next up

Conclusion & source code

Proof-of-work is essential for the security and integrity of blockchains. Without it, we couldn't trust it enough to store information it.

The source code of this project is available on Github.

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