bips/bip-0156.mediawiki

<pre>
  BIP: 156
  Layer: Peer Services
  Title: Dandelion - Privacy Enhancing Routing
  Author: Brad Denby <bdenby@cmu.edu>
          Andrew Miller <soc1024@illinois.edu>
          Giulia Fanti <gfanti@andrew.cmu.edu>
          Surya Bakshi <sbakshi3@illinois.edu>
          Shaileshh Bojja Venkatakrishnan <shaileshh.bv@gmail.com>
          Pramod Viswanath <pramodv@illinois.edu>
  Comments-URI: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/wiki/Comments:BIP-0156
  Status: Rejected
  Type: Standards Track
  Created: 2017-06-09
  License: CC0-1.0
</pre>

==Abstract==

Bitcoin's transaction spreading protocol is vulnerable to deanonymization
attacks. Dandelion is a transaction routing mechanism that provides formal
anonymity guarantees against these attacks. When a node generates a transaction
without Dandelion, it transmits that transaction to its peers with independent,
exponential delays. This approach, known as diffusion in academia, allows
network adversaries to link transactions to IP addresses.

Dandelion mitigates this class of attacks by sending transactions over a
randomly selected path before diffusion. Transactions travel along this path
during the "stem phase" and are then diffused during the "fluff phase" (hence
Dandelion). We have shown that this routing protocol provides near-optimal
anonymity guarantees among schemes that do not introduce additional encryption
mechanisms.

==Motivation==

Transaction diffusion in Bitcoin is vulnerable to deanonymization attacks.
Because transactions are sent to peers with independent, exponential delays,
messages spread through the network in a statistically symmetric manner. This
pattern allows colluding spy nodes to infer the transaction source. Breaking
this symmetry prevents the attack. However, we have shown that an adversary with
knowledge of the network topology can launch a much more effective "fingerprint"
attack if the symmetry breaking is not done properly.

Consider a botnet-style adversary with access to the P2P graph. Botnets of size
comparable to the Bitcoin P2P network are common and cheap, and these
adversaries can learn the network structure with probe messages. We have shown
that such an adversary can achieve total deanonymization of the entire network
after observing less than ten transactions per node.

Dandelion is a practical, lightweight privacy solution that provides the Bitcoin
network formal anonymity guarantees. While other privacy solutions aim to
protect individual users, Dandelion protects anonymity by limiting the
capability of adversaries to deanonymize the entire network.

==How Dandelion Works==

Dandelion enhances user privacy by sending transactions through an anonymity
phase before diffusing them throughout the network. At a high level, Dandelion
enhances privacy by (i) breaking the symmetry of diffusion and (ii) mixing
transactions by forwarding messages from different sources along the same path.

Dandelion routing can be conceptualized in three phases. First, a privacy graph
is constructed. In practice, this privacy graph is constructed in a fully
decentralized manner and is a subgraph of the existing Bitcoin P2P network.
Next, transactions are forwarded along this privacy graph during the "stem
phase." Finally, messages are broadcast to the network during the "fluff phase"
using the typical method of diffusion.

[[File:bip-0156/1-dandelion.png|framed|center|alt=An illustration of Dandelion routing|Figure 1]]
Figure 1

In order to select the privacy graph in a decentralized manner, each node
selects a subset of its outbound peers to be Dandelion destinations. Dandelion
transactions (transactions in their stem phase) that arrive at this node via
inbound connections are forwarded to these Dandelion destinations.

In an ideal setting, we have found that a Hamiltonian circuit provides
near-optimal privacy guarantees. However, constructing a Hamiltonian circuit
through the Bitcoin P2P network in a decentralized, trustless manner is not
feasible. Thus, we recommend that each node select two Dandelion destinations
uniformly at random without replacement from its list of outbound peers. Our
tests have shown that this method provides comparable privacy with increased
robustness.

During stem phase routing, there is a question of how to route messages in order
to protect privacy. For example, if two Dandelion transactions arrive at a node
from different inbound peers, to which Dandelion destination(s) should these
transactions be sent? We have found that some choices are much better than
others.

Consider the case in which each Dandelion transaction is forwarded to a
Dandelion destination selected uniformly at random. This approach results in a
fingerprint attack allowing network-level botnet adversaries to achieve total
deanonymization of the P2P network after observing less than ten transactions
per node.

[[File:bip-0156/2-attack.png|framed|center|alt=An illustration of a fingerprint attack|Figure 2]]
Figure 2

During a fingerprint attack, a botnet-style adversary with knowledge of the
graph structure first simulates transaction propagation. This offline step lets
the adversary generate fingerprints for each network node. During the online
attack, the adversary collects transactions at its spy nodes and matches these
observations to the simulated fingerprints. Our simulations have shown that this
attack results in devastating, network-wide deanonymization.

[[File:bip-0156/3-attack-plot.png|framed|center|alt=A plot illustrating total deanonymization|Figure 3]]
Figure 3

To avoid this issue, we suggest "per-inbound-edge" routing. Each inbound peer is
assigned a particular Dandelion destination. Each Dandelion transaction that
arrives via this peer is forwarded to the same Dandelion destination.
Per-inbound-edge routing breaks the described attack by blocking an adversary's
ability to construct useful fingerprints. Fingerprints arise when routing
decisions are made independently per transaction at each node. In this case, two
transactions from the same node generally take different paths through the
network. Crucially, this results in multiple, unique data points that are
aggregated to match with a fingerprint.

Dandelion ensures that two transactions from the same node take the same network
path, limiting adversaries to the far-left of the graph in Figure 3. In other
words, adversary knowledge is limited to the case of one observed message rather
than a rich profile of multiple transaction paths. Dandelion also breaks the
symmetry of diffusion, making the source of the transaction difficult to infer.

[[File:bip-0156/4-dandelion-plot.png|framed|center|alt=A plot illustrating limited deanonymization|Figure 4]]
Figure 4

After a transaction has traveled along a Dandelion stem for a random number of
hops, it transitions into the fluff phase of routing. The transaction is shared
with the network through the existing process of diffusion. In practice, this
fluff mechanism is enforced by a weighted coin flip at each node. If the random
value is below some threshold, the Dandelion transaction is transformed into a
typical transaction. In our testing, we have chosen a probability of ten percent
that a given Dandelion transaction enters fluff phase when leaving a given node.
This value strikes a good balance between stem path length and transaction
spreading latency.

Note that Dandelion's expected precision guarantees are a population-level
metric, whereas the expected recall guarantees can be interpreted as an
individual-level metric. Expected recall is equivalent to the probability that
an adversary associates a single transaction with a given source. These
guarantees are probabilistic. They do not address scenarios in which a node has
been eclipsed by other nodes, or when a node is specifically targeted by an
ISP-like adversary. Individuals who are concerned about targeted deanonymization
should still use Tor.

At a high level, Dandelion is like an "anonymity inoculation" for the public at
large - including users who are not aware of Bitcoin's privacy issues. Higher
adoption leads to greater benefits, even for users who do not use Tor. Early
adopters of Dandelion still receive privacy benefits. In the worst case when no
neighbors support Dandelion, transactions make at least one hop before
diffusing. Note that any solution based only on routing cannot be perfectly
anonymous due to the fundamental lower bounds on precision and recall shown in
the original Dandelion paper. Dandelion provides near-optimal anonymity
guarantees among such solutions.

==Specification==

Dandelion can be specified with a handful of features: Dandelion transaction
support, Dandelion routing data and logic, periodic Dandelion route shuffling,
memory pool logic, the fluff mechanism, transaction embargoes, and Dandelion
transaction logic. Specification details are summarized below.

===Dandelion transaction support===

During the stem phase, transactions are "Dandelion transactions." When a
Dandelion transaction enters fluff phase, it becomes a typical Bitcoin
transaction. Dandelion transactions and typical transactions differ only in
their <code>NetMsgType</code>.

Dandelion (stem phase) transactions MUST be differentiable from typical Bitcoin
transactions.

===Dandelion routing data and logic===

Dandelion routing during the stem phase requires notions of inbound peers,
outbound peers, Dandelion destinations, and Dandelion routes. Inbound peers
consist of all currently connected peers that initiated the peer connection.
Outbound peers consist of all currently connected peers that were connected to
by this node. Dandelion destinations are a subset of outbound peers. The number
of Dandelion destinations is limited by the
<code>DANDELION_MAX_DESTINATIONS</code> parameter. In the reference
implementation, this parameter is set to two. Our tests have shown that this
value provides both privacy and robustness (see the reference paper for more
details on the parameter tradeoffs). Dandelion routes are a map of inbound peers
to Dandelion destinations. Every inbound peer is mapped to a Dandelion
destination.

Note that a Dandelion node may choose a different
<code>DANDELION_MAX_DESTINATIONS</code> parameter without splitting from the
privacy graph. When mapping inbound connections to outbound connections for
Dandelion routes, we implement the following routing logic. First, select a set
of Dandelion destinations from the set of outbound peers. This set of Dandelion
destinations is of size less than or equal to
<code>DANDELION_MAX_DESTINATIONS</code>. For each inbound connection, first
identify the subset of Dandelion destinations with the least number of routes.
For example, some subset of Dandelion destinations may be affiliated with zero
routes while all other Dandelion destinations are affiliated with one or more
routes. From this subset, select one Dandelion destination uniformly at random.
Establish a Dandelion route from the inbound connection to this Dandelion
destination.

For a given Dandelion routing epoch, two distinct Dandelion destinations SHOULD
be selected uniformly at random from the set of outbound connections. All
Dandelion transactions that arrive via a given inbound connection MUST be
transmitted to the same Dandelion destination. When choosing a Dandelion
destination for a given inbound connection, the destination MUST be selected
uniformly at random from the set of Dandelion destinations with the least number
of inbound connections mapped to them.

===Periodic Dandelion route shuffling===

The map of Dandelion routes is cleared and reconstructed every ten minutes on
average. We have chosen the value of ten minutes heuristically in order to make
privacy graph learning difficult for adversaries. Note that a Dandelion node may
choose a different average shuffle time without splitting from the privacy
graph.

Dandelion routes MUST be cleared and reconstructed at random intervals.
Dandelion routes SHOULD be cleared and reconstructed every ten minutes on
average.

===Memory pool logic===

Dandelion transactions are segregated from typical transactions. The
<code>mempool</code> remains unchanged. Another instance of the
<code>CTxMemPool</code> class, called the <code>stempool</code>, is used for
Dandelion transactions. Information flows from <code>mempool</code> to
<code>stempool</code> in order to ensure proper transaction propagation.
Information does not flow from <code>stempool</code> to <code>mempool</code>,
except when a Dandelion transaction fluffs into a typical transaction.

When a Dandelion transaction arrives, the transaction MUST be added to the
stempool and MUST NOT be added to the mempool. When a typical Bitcoin
transaction arrives, the transaction MUST be added to the mempool and MUST be
added to the stempool. When a Dandelion transaction fluffs, the transaction MUST
be added to the mempool.

===The fluff mechanism===

When relaying a Dandelion transaction along a Dandelion route, there is a 10%
chance that the Dandelion transaction becomes a typical Bitcoin transaction and
is therefore relayed via diffusion. In our testing, this value strikes a good
balance between stem path length and transaction spreading latency. Note that a
Dandelion node may choose a different chance of fluffing without splitting from
the privacy graph.

When a node prepares to transmit a Dandelion transaction, the node MUST flip a
biased coin. If the outcome is "Dandelion transaction," then the node MUST
transmit the transaction to the appropriate Dandelion destination. Otherwise,
the node MUST convert the Dandelion transaction into a typical Bitcoin
transaction. A Dandelion transaction SHOULD fluff into a typical Bitcoin
transaction with a 10% probability.

===Transaction embargoes===

During the stem phase, transactions are relayed along a single path. If any node
in this path were to receive the Dandelion transaction and go offline, then the
transaction would cease to propagate. To increase robustness, every node that
forwards a Dandelion transaction initializes a timer at the time of reception.
If the Dandelion transaction does not appear in the memory pool by the time the
timer expires, then the transaction enters fluff phase and is forwarded via
diffusion.

When a Dandelion transaction arrives, the node MUST set an embargo timer for a
random time in the future. If the Dandelion transaction arrives as a typical
Bitcoin transaction, the node MUST cancel the timer. If the timer expires before
the Dandelion transaction is observed as a typical Bitcoin transaction, then the
node MUST fluff the Dandelion transaction.

===Dandelion transaction logic===

The following cases define a node's behavior when receiving network packets
referencing Dandelion transactions.
* Receive INV for Dandelion TX: If the peer is inbound and the Dandelion transaction has not been received from this peer, then reply with GETDATA.
* Receive GETDATA for Dandelion TX: If the peer is not inbound and the Dandelion transaction has been advertised to this peer, then reply with the Dandelion transaction.
* Receive Dandelion TX: If the peer is inbound, then relay the Dandelion TX to the appropriate Dandelion destination.

==Implementation==

A reference implementation is available at the following URL:
https://github.com/dandelion-org/bitcoin/tree/dandelion-feature-commits

All features have been compressed into a single commit at the following URL:
https://github.com/dandelion-org/bitcoin/tree/dandelion

==Compatibility==

Dandelion does not conflict with existing versions of Bitcoin. A Bitcoin node
that supports Dandelion appears no differently to Bitcoin nodes running older
software versions. Bitcoin nodes that support Dandelion can identify feature
support through a probe message. Obviously, older nodes are not capable of
Dandelion routing. If a Bitcoin node supporting Dandelion has no peers that also
support Dandelion, then its behavior naturally decays to that of a Bitcoin node
without Dandelion support due to the Dandelion transaction embargoes.

==Acknowledgements==

We would like to thank the Bitcoin Core developers and Gregory Maxwell in
particular for their insightful comments, which helped to inform this
implementation and some of the follow-up work we conducted. We would also like
to thank the Mimblewimble development community for coining the term "stempool,"
which we happily adopted for this implementation.

==References==

# An Analysis of Anonymity in Bitcoin Using P2P Network Traffic http://fc14.ifca.ai/papers/fc14_submission_71.pdf
# Deanonymisation of clients in Bitcoin P2P network https://arxiv.org/abs/1405.7418
# Discovering Bitcoin’s Public Topology and Influential Nodes https://cs.umd.edu/projects/coinscope/coinscope.pdf
# (Sigmetrics 2017) Dandelion: Redesigning the Bitcoin Network for Anonymity https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.04439
# (Sigmetrics 2018) Dandelion++: Lightweight Cryptocurrency Networking with Formal Anonymity Guarantees https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.11060.pdf

==Copyright==

To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all copyright and
related and neighboring rights to this work to the public domain worldwide. This
work is distributed without any warranty.

You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication with this
work. If not, see https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ .