A pool participant submits ordinary shares but secretly discards full-difficulty blocks, harming pool revenue while appearing to work.
Block withholding attack is best understood as part of a system rather than as an isolated definition. Its related coordinates show the mechanisms, incentives and historical records that give the term practical meaning.
Block withholding attack sits between protocol rules, economic incentives and software operated by independent participants. In Bitcoin, no component is authoritative by itself: miners propose history, fully validating nodes enforce validity, and users decide which rules and software they accept.
Understanding Block withholding attack helps distinguish a verifiable Bitcoin mechanism or historical record from slogans, products and market narratives.
For the clearest picture, read this entry together with Mining pool, Mining share, Pool fee, Selfish mining.
Linked to related atlas coordinates
Grounded in a source record
Explains function and trade-offs
Part of the open Bitcoin knowledge graph