Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science and Computer Security

Security analysis of the Ethereum Modified Merkle Patricia Trie

S. N. Kyazhin, L. R. Akhmetzyanova


Abstract: The Ethereum Modified Merkle Patricia Trie assumes a representation of the state of the blockchain system as a tree, which is a modification of the Merkle tree and the Patricia tree. This paper demonstrates that the security of the mechanism relies on the collision resistance of the underlying hash function: if the system state changes but the hash value computed using the Ethereum Modified Merkle-Patricia-Trie remains unchanged, then a collision must have occurred in at least one of the hash values computed by the underlying hash function.

Keywords: cryptography, hash, collision, Merkle tree, Patricia tree, blockchain, Ethereum Modified Merkle Patricia Trie.

UDC: 004.056

DOI: 10.17223/2226308X/18/42