A Blockchain Consensus Protocol with Horizontal Scalability

Kelong Cong, Zhijie Ren, Johan Pouwelse

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Blockchain technology has the potential to decentralise many traditionally centralised systems. However, scalability remains a key challenge. A horizontally scalable solution, where performance increases by adding more nodes, would move blockchain systems one step closer to ubiquitous use. We design a novel blockchain system called CHECO. Each node in our system maintains a personal hash chain, which only stores transactions that the node is involved in. A consensus is reached on special blocks called checkpoint blocks rather than on all transactions. Checkpoint blocks are effectively a hash pointer to the personal hash chains; thus a single checkpoint block may represent an arbitrarily large set of transactions. We introduce a validation protocol so that any node can check the validity of any transaction. Since transaction and validation protocols are point-to-point, we achieve horizontal scalability. We analytically evaluate our system and show a number of highly desirable correctness properties such as consensus on the validity of transactions. Further, we give a free and open-source implementation of CHECO and evaluate it experimentally. Our results show a strong indication of horizontal scalability.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2018 IFIP Networking Conference (IFIP Networking) and Workshops
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings
EditorsBurkhard Stiller
Place of PublicationPiscataway, NJ, USA
PublisherIEEE
Pages424-432
Number of pages9
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-903176-08-9
ISBN (Print)978-1-5386-6280-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Event17th IFIP Networking Conference IFIP Networking and Workshops, IFIP Networking 2018 - Zurich, Switzerland
Duration: 14 May 201816 May 2018

Conference

Conference17th IFIP Networking Conference IFIP Networking and Workshops, IFIP Networking 2018
Country/TerritorySwitzerland
CityZurich
Period14/05/1816/05/18

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