The Hashgraph algorithm provides from a mathematical point of view fair ordering and access. However it is important to point out that these mathematical proofs working on an event level, that might be a little bit different if we consider things on a transaction level or from a real architecure point of view.
One attack might be to censor a newly created transaction on a node level, before the transaction even really reaches the network, before it will be put into a node. The censorship can be realized by directly hacking the Hedera software, but it might be realized indirectly as well, like censoring the transactions at the operation system or at the network level. For such a censorship attack, there might be several resolution:
- users might use only trusted nodes. However in an untrusted or semitrusted architecture this is not a lucky algorithm.
- users might broadcast a transaction to a node and monitor the system. If the transaction was not propagated, the transaction can be broadcasted again, or to another node, or several other nodes as well. It can work in situations where delaying or timing of the transactions can not cause problems.
- to be 100% sure that the transaction is propagated as fast as possible, users has to broadcast the transaction to 33% +1 nodes. As the theoretical limit of a Byzantine fault tolerant architecture 33% in such a situation at least one node should work honestly and propagate the transaction right away.
Similar attack can be realized as a newly created transaction is propagated to the network by a node but not with the next possible event, but with a later one, cause indirectly a delay in the transaction. It might cause serious economical damage with certain timing relevant applications, like online gambling and games. To be sure that no delaying can occur with a newly created transaction, the most secure way is again to propagate the transaction to 33%+1 nodes in the system. In such situation, if one honest node propagates the transaction to the network as soon as it gets, than the transaction will be part of the hashgraph right away, independently if other faulty or hacked nodes delegate the transaction only with a delay.
