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Blockchain consensus mechanisms have relied on algorithms such as Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) to ensure network functionality and integrity. However, these approaches struggle with adaptability for decision-making where the…
Large scale cryptocurrencies require the participation of millions of participants and support economic activity of billions of dollars, which has led to new lines of work in binary Byzantine Agreement (BBA) and consensus. The new work aims…
Consensus algorithms facilitate agreement on and resolution of blockchain functions, such as smart contracts and transactions. Ethereum uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, which depends on financial incentives to ensure that…
We review probabilistic models known as majority dynamics (also known as threshold Voter Models) and discuss their possible applications for achieving consensus in cryptocurrency systems. In particular, we show that using this approach…
Reconfiguration of long-lived blockchain and Byzantine fault-tolerant (BFT) systems poses fundamental security challenges. In case of state-of-the-art Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains, stake reconfiguration enables so-called long-range…
We present a Byzantine agreement protocol to address the inefficiencies inherent in multi-valued Byzantine agreement protocols, i.e., a version of the Byzantine agreement protocol where every party broadcasts its request, and at the end of…
Blockchains combine other technologies, such as cryptography, networking, and incentive mechanisms, to enable the creation, validation, and recording of transactions between participating nodes. A consensus algorithm is used in a blockchain…
With the increasing adoption of decentralized information systems based on a variety of permissionless blockchain networks, the choice of consensus mechanism is at the core of many controversial discussions. Ethereum's recent transition…
The blockchain data structure maintained via the longest-chain rule---popularized by Bitcoin---is a powerful algorithmic tool for consensus algorithms. Such algorithms achieve consistency for blocks in the chain as a function of their depth…
This paper presents a novel staking coopetition design aimed at incentivizing decentralization and continuous growth of economic security within a proof-of-stake system. Staking rewards follow a nonlinear mapping relative to stake size.…
With the continuous expansion of blockchain application scenarios, consortium chains have raised higher performance and security requirements for consensus mechanisms. Unlike public blockchains, consortium chains typically implement an…
Permissionless consensus protocols require a scarce resource to regulate leader election and provide Sybil resistance. Existing paradigms such as Proof of Work and Proof of Stake instantiate this scarcity through parallelizable resources…
In blockchain systems, especially cryptographic currencies such as Bitcoin, the double-spending and Byzantine-general-like problem are solved by reaching consensus protocols among all nodes. The state-of-the-art protocols include…
This paper presents a study of the Poof-of-Stake (PoW) Ethereum consensus protocol, following the recent switch from Proof-of-Work (PoS) to Proof-of-Stake within Merge upgrade. The new protocol has resulted in reduced energy consumption and…
Currently there exist many blockchains with weak trust guarantees, limiting applications and participation. Existing solutions to boost the trust using a stronger blockchain, e.g., via checkpointing, requires the weaker blockchain to give…
We suggest that the Quantum Honest Byzantine Agreement (QHBA) protocol [1] essentially reduces consensus to coincidence. The volume of coincidence is the parameter that drives a receiver to echo its input. A lack of coincidence results in…
The Algorand blockchain is a secure and decentralized public ledger based on pure proof of stake rather than proof of work. At its core it is a novel consensus protocol with exactly one block certified in each round: that is, the protocol…
This paper applies biomimetic engineering to the problem of permissionless Byzantine consensus and achieves results that surpass the prior state of the art by four orders of magnitude. It introduces a biologically inspired asymmetric…
This paper studies the message complexity of authenticated Byzantine agreement (BA) in synchronous, fully-connected distributed networks under an honest majority. We focus on the so-called {\em implicit} Byzantine agreement problem where…
Blockchain Sharding is a blockchain performance enhancement approach. By splitting a blockchain into several parallel-run committees (shards), it helps increase transaction throughput, reduce computational resources required, and increase…