Selfish Mining: Inside the Dark Strategy

introduction

Despite the fact that the official number of Bitcoin miners is not published, estimates derived from hashrate reveal that there will be over 4 million mining machines active at the beginning of 2026. This is a sharp increase from 224,000 units at the beginning of 2024. Similarly, you must have seen more and more people talking about Bitcoin and the crypto market. Generally, people are interested in knowing about and investing in the market, but few realize how risky it can actually be. Apart from well-known risks such as fraud and hacking, there are also some hidden threats that most people are unaware of. One of them is selfish mining.

What is self-mining?

To understand what selfish mining actually is, you need to understand what honest, unselfish mining looks like. In a proof-of-work blockchain like Bitcoin, miners compete with each other to find the next valid block on the chain. When miners find a block, they add it to the chain and broadcast the latest version of the chain onto the network. This version is one block longer than the previous version, so the network will prioritize it and continue building on top of it. Egoistic mining refers to a mining strategy in which individual miners or groups hold off on newly found blocks until they add them, and broadcast them to the network only when the blocks are long.

The problem with this strategy is that it tends to undermine and later waste the work and energy invested by honest miners who add new blocks and instantly broadcast updated chains to the network.

Self-mining threats

Taken at face value, you might think that selfish mining is just a clever tactic, and that since mining itself is a competition, it’s legitimate to trick others into outperforming them. However, the real problem is that selfish mining tends to jeopardize the highly decentralized nature of blockchain. Suppose a miner continues to secretly increase the chain by adding new blocks, and then suddenly releases that version to the network. Blockchains naturally accept longer versions released by bad actors.

If large groups of miners collude to adopt this strategy, smaller miners are left with no choice but to build longer chains exposed by selfish groups. This situation could result in mine control being in the hands of a minority. In the worst case scenario, a dominant group could evolve into a majority and carry out a 51% attack against the blockchain. Such attacks are destructive to blockchain transparency and fair operation, as the majority can rewrite the rules and commit double-spending on the network.

Is selfish mining a real threat today?

Despite the rewards from selfish mining, it is not common on established chains like Bitcoin because it can be very risky. The reason is very simple. If a selfish miner withholds a block, he or she is taking a very risky gamble that one block may be found before the legitimate chain finds one. If they’re lucky, and their rigs are powerful enough, they might be able to do so. However, mining operations have evolved and accelerated enough to counter such efforts by malicious actors, and their chains will likely be rejected by the network. In such a situation, all their energy and time will be wasted.

Many analysts suggest the risks are theoretical. Academic and empirical research has revealed that this debate is part of the security debate in the field of blockchain technology. According to the report, researchers indicate that a method has been devised to detect selfish mining. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that a selfish miner would remain in his spare time adding block after block to the secret chain, only to publish and capitalize it later.

Network participants’ reactions

Selfish mining has inspired many researchers and developers to think about protection and detection methods. One approach is to introduce network rule changes that make it harder to benefit from withholding blocks. Another research direction uses statistical detection and machine learning to identify anomalous mining patterns that may indicate strategic block withholding.

Detection of selfish mining practices can damage the reputation of the miners involved in the activity and alert the wider community. This could lead to improvements in network protocols and social pressure on mining pools to avoid deceptive strategies. Because blockchain is transparent, researchers and developers can monitor how blocks appear on the chain and infer how miners behave over time.

Broad implications for blockchain security

Selfish mining is more than just a curiosity. This highlights a fundamental tension in decentralized consensus systems. Cryptocurrencies are designed to reward individual participants who contribute to the success of the network. However, when strategies emerge that give some players an advantage by breaking the protocols, we need to investigate how stable and secure these systems actually are.

In recent research based on machine learning and game theory, scholars have taken a closer look at how different mining strategies behave when working together in real networks. These studies suggest that classical selfish mining approaches lose their advantages and may not be able to achieve consistent profits when multiple miners act in concert at the same time. What emerges from this study are broader insights. Selfish mining is not just a single abuse to be feared. This shows how fairness, cooperation, and occasional conflict affect the long-term balance and stability of a blockchain system.

conclusion

Selfish mining exposes a subtle but important weakness in Proof-of-Work blockchains, where individual incentives can conflict with network fairness. Although this strategy is largely theoretical for a mature network like Bitcoin, it serves as a valuable stress test for decentralization and security. Continuing research, improved detection methods, and community oversight will help limit risks and reinforce the idea that transparency and collective vigilance are essential to maintaining a resilient blockchain ecosystem.