DDoS assaults can impact blockchain systems by inundating them with transaction volumes and compromising smart contracts, aiming to congest the network with deceitful transactions, causing slowdowns, and potentially halting operations altogether.

Transaction flooding occurs when attackers deliberately overload a blockchain network with a high volume of transactions, disrupting its regular functions. These attackers utilize automated scripts or specialized software to generate a surge of transaction requests, overwhelming the network's processing capabilities. Consequently, legitimate transactions become stuck in the backlog, affecting various services reliant on the blockchain network.

Hackers can also target vulnerable smart contracts within the blockchain network, inundating them with transaction requests containing fraudulent instructions or excessive computations. This overload burdens the execution of smart contract code, causing significant delays in transaction validation and potentially impacting other smart contracts and transactions across the network.

Additionally, the inherent immutability of blockchain transactions exacerbates the impact of DDoS attacks by preventing the alteration of flooded transactions, which can overwhelm the network beyond its capacity to handle, potentially causing software crashes.

Furthermore, nodes, essential components of blockchain networks, are susceptible to failure under the strain of DDoS attacks. Nodes may run out of memory or processing power due to the influx of junk data, leading to network slowdowns or collapses as other nodes struggle to compensate for the failed ones.