Blockchain Scalability Research Articles

An efficient sharding consensus protocol for improving blockchain scalability

An efficient sharding consensus protocol for improving blockchain scalability

Enhancing Blockchain Scalability Through Layer 1 and Layer 2 Solutions: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract: Blockchain scalability remains one of the most crucial challenges proscribing its good-sized adoption. This paper explores each Layer 1 and Layer 2 scalability answers, analysing their underlying mechanisms, benefits, and alternate-offs. We delve into advancements which include sharding, rollups, sidechains, and state channels, highlighting their contributions to enhancing blockchain overall performance. additionally, this study presents a comparative analysis of protocols like Lightning community, Plasma, Raiden network, and eltoo, evaluating their effectiveness in addressing transaction throughput, latency, safety, and decentralization. The findings intention to manual developers and researchers in deciding on appropriate scalability answers for numerous blockchain applications.

Designing an Intelligent System for Vaccine Supply Chain Management Based on Blockchain Using Machine Learning Algorithms

Objective: The objective of this study is to design and evaluate an intelligent vaccine supply chain management system (VSC) based on blockchain technology, integrating machine learning algorithms and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Methodology: The research employs a multifaceted approach, incorporating blockchain technology to ensure data immutability and transparency, machine learning models for predictive analytics, and IoT devices for real-time monitoring. Key methodologies include the implementation of a hybrid LSTM-CNN model for credibility assessment, an SVM-based intelligent inoculation module, and sharding for improving blockchain scalability. Data for model training and evaluation were sourced from existing vaccine supply chain records and simulated scenarios to ensure robust testing of the system’s components. Findings: The study demonstrates that integrating blockchain with machine learning significantly enhances the management of vaccine supply chains. The hybrid LSTM-CNN model effectively assesses the credibility of vaccine manufacturers, while the SVM model accurately predicts the need for vaccinations. Sharding improves the system’s scalability, allowing for efficient processing of large transaction volumes. The system also ensures that expired vaccines are promptly detected and removed from the supply chain, thereby maintaining vaccine quality and safety. Conclusion: This research highlights the transformative potential of combining blockchain technology, IoT, and machine learning in vaccine supply chain management. The proposed system not only improves efficiency, transparency, and security but also addresses the scalability challenges inherent in global immunization efforts.

STRENGTHENING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION IN THE EU: IT LAW AND ITS IMPACT ON THE COMPUTER GAMES INDUSTRY

The exponential growth of digital entertainment and rapid technological advancements have elevated intellectual property (IP) protection as a cornerstone of innovation and economic development within the European Union (EU). The computer games industry exemplifies this dynamic, blending creativity, technology, and commerce. However, challenges such as piracy, copyright infringement, and cross-border enforcement necessitate robust IP frameworks to sustain growth and innovation. This study aims to analyze the role of IP protection in the EU, particularly within IT law, and its implications for the computer games industry. The objectives include evaluating current legal frameworks, identifying key challenges such as piracy and enforcement, exploring the role of emerging technologies like blockchain and AI, and proposing actionable strategies to strengthen IP protection and foster innovation. The study employs a comprehensive review of academic articles, legal texts, industry reports, and historical cases of IP disputes. A legal analysis of EU directives, regulations, and case law was conducted to assess their application in the gaming industry. This methodology provides a holistic understanding of the intersection between IP protection, IT law, and the computer games sector. Findings highlight the harmonization of national IP laws across EU member states through directives like the Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC), Digital Single Market Directive (2019/790), and GDPR. Challenges include inconsistencies in enforcement, piracy, and the complexities of emerging technologies such as AI and blockchain. The study identifies significant economic impacts, including vulnerabilities faced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the need for harmonized enforcement mechanisms. Future research should explore the ethical implications of IP enforcement, the scalability of blockchain for copyright management, and the integration of AI in real-time infringement detection. Expanding the focus to global collaborative mechanisms and cross-industry applications of emerging technologies will enhance understanding and policy development.

Data Deduplication Based on Content Locality of Transactions to Enhance Blockchain Scalability

Blockchain is a promising infrastructure for the internet and digital economy, but it has serious scalability problems, that is, long block synchronization time and high storage cost. Conventional coarse-grained data deduplication schemes (block or file level) are proved to be ineffective on improving the scalability of blockchains. Based on comprehensive analysis on typical blockchain workloads, we propose two new locality concepts (economic and argument locality) and a novel fine-grained data deduplication scheme (transaction level) named Alias-Chain. Specifically, Alias-Chain replaces frequently used data, for example, smart contract arguments, with much shorter aliases to reduce the block sizes, which results in both shorter synchronization time and lower storage cost. Furthermore, to solve the potential consistency issue in Alias-Chain, we propose two complementary techniques: one is generating aliases from history blocks with high consistency, and the other is speeding up the generation of aliases via a specific algorithm. Our simulation results show: (1) the average transfer and SC-call transaction (a transaction used to call the smart contracts in the blockchain) sizes can be significantly reduced by up to 11.03% and 79.44% in native Ethereum, and up to 39.29% and 81.84% in Ethereum optimized by state-of-the-art techniques; and (2) the two complementary techniques well address the inconsistency risk with very limited impact on the benefit of Alias-Chain. Prototyping-based experiments are further conducted on a testbed consisting of up to 3200 miners. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of Alias-Chain on reducing block synchronization time and storage cost under typical real-world workloads.

Blockchain Scalability with Proof of Descriptor

Blockchain networks use consensus mechanisms so that participants can exchange transactions without the need to rely on a trusted third party. Consensus mechanisms using Proof of Work burn significant energy to select a block miner, and this delay limits performance. Other consensus mechanisms such as Proof of Stake or Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance still designate a single validator to append a block to the chain, preventing blocks from being built and published in parallel. In this paper we introduce a new consensus mechanism, Proof of Descriptor, enabling clients to work together to publish blockchain transactions using a descriptor object which stores information on the cooperative parallel execution of transactions. Proof of Descriptor consensus allows commutative transactions to be mined concurrently. It does not require a single leader to append transactions to the ledger, enabling clients to cooperate on publishing transactions. We also propose a novel graph-based ledger with multiple entry points to facilitate the scalability of Proof of Descriptor, as well as a secure hashing scheme to resist long-range-attacks. We demonstrate that our approach is as secure as related works with respect to a malicious leader, 51% attack, and other known blockchain vulnerabilities. Furthermore, our experimental evaluation shows that our approach scales with the size of the network, experiencing up to a 4x improvement in throughput over the fastest sequential blockchain, Solana .

A sharding blockchain protocol for enhanced scalability and performance optimization through account transaction reconfiguration

Sharding is a critical technology for enhancing blockchain scalability. However, existing sharding blockchain protocols suffer from a high cross-shard ratio, high transaction latency, limited throughput enhancement, and high account migration. To address these problems, this paper proposes a sharding blockchain protocol for enhanced scalability and performance optimization through account transaction reconfiguration. Firstly, we construct a blockchain transaction account graph network structure to analyze transaction account correlations. Secondly, a modularity-based account transaction reconfiguration algorithm and a detailed account reconfiguration process is designed to minimize cross-shard transactions. Finally, we introduce a transaction processing mechanism for account transaction reconfiguration in parallel with block consensus uploading, which reduces the reconfiguration time overhead and system latency. Experimental results demonstrate substantial performance improvements compared to existing shard protocols: up to a 34.7% reduction in cross-shard transaction ratio, at least an 83.2% decrease in transaction latency, at least a 52.7% increase in throughput and a 7.8% decrease in account migration number. The proposed protocol significantly enhances the overall performance and scalability of blockchain, providing robust support for blockchain applications in various fields such as financial services, supply chain management, and industrial Internet of Things. It also enables better support for high-concurrency scenarios and large-scale network environments.

Adaptive Merkle trees for enhanced blockchain scalability

The scalability of blockchain technology remains a critical challenge, hindering its widespread adoption across various sectors. This study introduces an innovative approach to address this challenge by proposing the adaptive restructuring of Merkle trees, fundamental components of blockchain architecture responsible for ensuring data integrity and facilitating efficient verification processes. Unlike traditional static tree structures, our adaptive model dynamically adjusts the configuration of these trees based on usage patterns, significantly reducing the average path length required for verification and, consequently, the computational overhead associated with these processes. Through a comprehensive conceptual framework, we delineate the methodology for adaptive restructuring, encompassing both binary and non-binary tree configurations. This framework is validated through a series of detailed examples, demonstrating the practical feasibility and the efficiency gains achievable with our approach. To empirically assess the effectiveness of our proposed method, we conducted rigorous experiments using real-world data from the Ethereum blockchain. The results provide compelling evidence for the superiority of adaptive Merkle trees, with efficiency gains of up to 30% and higher observed during the initial stages of tree restructuring. Moreover, we present a comparative analysis with existing scalability solutions, highlighting the unique advantages of adaptive restructuring in terms of simplicity, security, and efficiency enhancement without introducing additional complexities or dependencies. This study’s implications extend beyond theoretical advancements, offering a scalable, secure, and efficient method for blockchain data verification that could facilitate broader adoption of blockchain technology in finance, supply chain management, and beyond. As the blockchain ecosystem continues to evolve, the principles, methodologies, and empirical findings outlined herein are poised to contribute significantly to its growth and maturity. Statement The findings of this article were presented at ETHDenver 2024 (https://www.ethdenver.com/), a leading innovation festival that champions the Web3 community’s role in shaping the future of blockchain technology. A video of our presentation can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jjYVCAQkNE. The original manuscript of this article is available on the preprint archive at https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.00406.

Improving Blockchain Consistency Bound by Assigning Weights to Random Blocks

Ironclad Method Boosts Blockchain Consistency and Speeds up Block Production Researchers have developed a novel method called Ironclad to address the scalability limitations of blockchains based on the Nakamoto consensus protocol. Although these blockchains have shown promise in various applications, the consensus properties of the protocol impose inherent scalability constraints. A key property, known as consistency, poses a challenge by presenting a trade-off between block production speed and the system’s security against adversarial attacks. To overcome this, the researchers propose the Ironclad method, which introduces a unique approach by assigning different weights to randomly selected blocks. By applying the Ironclad method to the original Nakamoto protocol and conducting rigorous analysis of its consensus properties, the researchers demonstrate a significant improvement in the consistency bound. This advancement allows for a much faster block production rate compared with the original protocol while maintaining the same level of security guarantees. The Ironclad method presents a promising solution to enhance blockchain scalability, overcoming the limitations of the Nakamoto consensus protocol. This breakthrough has the potential to unlock new possibilities for blockchain applications, paving the way for improved transaction speeds and increased efficiency in various industries.

Improving Blockchain Scalability with the Setchain Data-Type

Blockchain technologies are facing a scalability challenge, which must be overcome to guarantee a wider adoption of the technology. This scalability issue is due to the use of consensus algorithms to guarantee the total order of the chain of blocks (and of the transactions within each block). However, total order is often not fully necessary, since important advanced applications of smart-contracts do not require a total order among all operations. A much higher scalability can potentially be achieved if a more relaxed order (instead of a total order) can be exploited. In this article, we propose a novel distributed concurrent data type, Setchain , which significantly improves scalability. A Setchain implements a grow-only set whose elements are not ordered, unlike conventional blockchain operations. When convenient, the Setchain allows forcing a synchronization barrier that assigns permanently an epoch number to a subset of the latest elements added, agreed by consensus. Therefore, two operations in the same epoch are not ordered, while two operations in different epochs are ordered by their respective epoch number. We present different Byzantine-tolerant implementations of Setchain, prove their correctness, and report on an empirical evaluation of a prototype implementation. Our results show that Setchain is orders of magnitude faster than consensus-based ledgers, since it implements grow-only sets with epoch synchronization instead of total order. Since the Setchain barriers can be synchronized with the underlying blockchain, Setchain objects can be used as a sidechain to implement many decentralized solutions with much faster operations than direct implementations on top of blockchains. Finally, we also present an algorithm that encompasses into a single process the combined behavior of the Byzantine servers, which simplifies correctness proofs by encoding the general attacker in a concrete implementation.

Workload dynamics implications in permissioned blockchain scalability and performance

Workload dynamics implications in permissioned blockchain scalability and performance

Enhancing blockchain scalability and security: the early fraud detection (EFD) framework for optimistic rollups

Enhancing blockchain scalability and security: the early fraud detection (EFD) framework for optimistic rollups

Prism blockchain enabled Internet of Things with deep reinforcement learning

This paper presents a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) based Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled Prism blockchain. The recent advancements in the field of IoT motivate the development of a secure infrastructure for storing and sharing vast amounts of data. Blockchain, a distributed and immutable ledger, is best known as a potential solution to data security and privacy for the IoT. The scalability of blockchain, which should optimize the throughput and handle the dynamics of the IoT environment, becomes a challenge due to the enormous amount of IoT data. The critical challenge in scaling blockchain is to guarantee decentralization, latency, and security of the system while optimizing the transaction throughput. This paper presents a DRL-based performance optimization for blockchain-enabled IoT. We consider one of the recent promising blockchains, Prism, as the underlying blockchain system because of its good performance guarantees. We integrate the IoT data into Prism blockchain and optimize the performance of the system by leveraging the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) method. The DRL method helps to optimize the blockchain parameters like mining rate and mined blocks to adapt to the environment dynamics of the IoT system. Our results show that the proposed method can improve the throughput of Prism blockchain-based IoT systems while preserving Prism performance guarantees. Our scheme can achieve 1.5 times more system rewards than IoT-integrated Prism. In our experimental setup, the proposed scheme could improve the average throughput of the system by about 6,000 transactions per second compared to Prism.

CMSS: A High-Performance Blockchain Storage System with Horizontal Scaling Support

As a decentralized system, blockchain has been widely used in numerous areas and has become a hot topic in both industry and academia. The increasing demand for blockchain causes heavy storage consumption which seriously affects the performance of blockchain, especially in the context of massive volumes of data. To solve these problems, many related systems like sharding and sidechain have been proposed to improve the efficiency and scalability of blockchain. However, in practical deployment scenarios, these systems still have problems, such as low read–write performance, and reorganization and synchronization of ledger data after storage expansion, which cause the storage system’s expansion to become difficult and time-consuming in large-scale blockchain systems. Facing these problems, in this paper we propose ChainMaker Storage System (CMSS). CMSS is a blockchain storage system with high read-and-write performance and horizontal scaling support. It has been used as the storage system of the most popular permissioned blockchain ChainMaker. There are three contributions of our proposed CMSS: (i) a new block storage workflow to achieve high read–write performance; (ii) the Meta File System (MFS) to support the horizontal expansion of blockchain storage; and (iii) hot–cold separation to reduce the resource usage and economic costs. To evaluate the performance of CMSS, we compare CMSS with Hyperledger Fabric (HLF), the most popular permissioned blockchain platform. We select five well-known cloud service providers to calculate the storage cost in a real production environment. The results show that CMSS has better performance in read and write than HLF and advantages in storage capacity and price.

Beyond Bitcoin the Future of Blockchain in Secure Communications

This research paper discusses the possibilities blockchain has for being used beyond its cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin) to provide better communication security, privacy, and dependability. The use of blockchain seals out the so-called single-collapsar points where failure is possible and from the attacks that are targeted on the centralized systems. Blockchain ensures the continuity, anonymity, and accessibility of data attacks through the use of modern cryptography which comprises, among other things, public-key cryptography. Discovering the potential and making it available is the power of this technology. It makes it safe from unauthorized access, preventing manipulation and addressing the issue of privacy with pseudonymity. It gives a longer path that can be used as an alternative to existing social platforms. Some issues facing blockchain's scalability, user experience, and regulatory questions are deterring its wider use in secure communications activities in the report. However, blockchain technology has its scaling solutions, aversion to privacy and security issues, adaptation to regulation, and integration with emerging technologies could be the basis for a massive transformation in security communications

HCNCT: A Cross-chain Interaction Scheme for the Blockchain-based Metaverse

As a new type of digital living space that blends virtual and reality, Metaverse combines many emerging technologies. It provides an immersive experience based on VR technology and stores and protects users’ digital content and digital assets through blockchain technology. However, different virtual environments are often highly heterogeneous in terms of underlying architecture and software implementation technology, which leads to many challenges in scalability and interoperability for blockchains serving the Metaverse. Cross-chain technology is an essential technology to realize the scalability and interoperability of blockchain. However, the current cross-chain technologies all have their own merits and demerits, and there is no cross-chain solution that can be fully applied to any scenario. To this end, in the blockchain-based Metaverse, this article proposes a cross-chain transaction scheme based on improved hash timelock, HCNCT. By combining the notary mechanism, this scheme uses a group of notaries to supervise and participate in cross-chain transactions, effectively solving the problem that malicious users create a large number of time-out transactions to block the transaction channel, which exists in the traditional hash timelock method. Besides, this article uses the verifiable secret sharing method in the notary group, which can effectively prevent the centralization problem of the notary mechanism. Moreover, this article discusses the process of key processing, cross-chain transaction and transaction verification of the scheme, and designs the user credibility evaluation mechanism, which can effectively reduce the occurrence of malicious default of users. Compared with existing solutions, our solution has the advantage of effectively addressing time-out transaction attacks and centralization issues while guaranteeing security. The experiments also verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

RAC-Chain: An Asynchronous Consensus-based Cross-chain Approach to Scalable Blockchain for Metaverse

The metaverse, as an emerging technical term, conceptually aims to construct a virtual digital space that runs parallel to the physical world. Due to human behaviors and interactions being represented in the virtual world, security in the metaverse is a challenging issue in which the traditional centralized service model is one of the threat sources. To conquer the obstacle caused by centralized computing, blockchain-based solutions are potential problem-solving methods. However, it is difficult for a single blockchain to support large-scale data and business services in the metaverse, due to the scalability restrictions. Moreover, multi-chain settings also encounter the interoperability issues. In this work, we propose a Relay chain and Asynchronous consensus-based Consortium blockchain cross-Chain model, which realizes message transmission and cross-chain transactions in multiple chains by adopting the relay chain and cross-chain gateways. All nodes of the application chains and the relay chain execute cross-chain transactions in sequence and reach a consensus on transactions at any transmission delay. Our experiment evaluations demonstrate that our approach performs well in atomicity, security, and functionality (cross-chain transactions), such that the performance of blockchain scalability in the metaverse can be improved, compared with the traditional relay chain schemes.

TbDd: A new trust-based, DRL-driven framework for blockchain sharding in IoT

Integrating sharded blockchain with IoT presents a solution for trust issues and optimized data flow. Sharding boosts blockchain scalability by dividing its nodes into parallel shards, yet it is vulnerable to the 1% attacks where dishonest nodes target a shard to corrupt the entire blockchain. Balancing security with scalability is pivotal for such systems. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) adeptly handles dynamic, complex systems and multi-dimensional optimization. This paper introduces a Trust-based and DRL-driven (TbDd) framework, crafted to counter collusion attack risks and dynamically adjust node allocation, enhancing throughput while maintaining network security. With a comprehensive trust evaluation mechanism, TbDd discerns node types and performs targeted resharding against potential threats. The TbDd framework maximizes the tolerance for dishonest nodes, optimizes node movement frequency, ensures even node distribution in shards, and balances sharding risks. Extensive evaluations validate TbDd’s superiority over conventional random-, community-, and trust-based sharding methods in shard risk equilibrium and reducing cross-shard transactions.

Enhancing blockchain scalability with snake optimization algorithm: a novel approach

Scalability remains a critical challenge for blockchain technology, limiting its potential for widespread adoption in high-demand transactional systems. This paper proposes an innovative solution to this challenge by applying the Snake Optimization Algorithm (SOA) to a blockchain framework, aimed at enhancing transaction throughput and reducing latency. A thorough literature review contextualizes our work within the current state of blockchain scalability efforts. We introduce a methodology that integrates SOA into the transaction validation process of a blockchain network. The effectiveness of this approach is empirically evaluated by comparing transaction processing times before and after the implementation of SOA. The results show a substantial reduction in latency, with the optimized system achieving lower average transaction times across various transaction volumes. Notably, the latency for processing batches of 10 and 100 transactions decreased from 30.29 ms to 155.66 ms–0.42 ms and 0.37 ms, respectively, post optimization. These findings indicate that SOA is exceptionally efficient in batch transaction scenarios, presenting an inverse scalability behavior that defies typical system performance degradation with increased load. Our research contributes a significant advancement in blockchain scalability, with implications for the development of more efficient and adaptable blockchain systems suitable for high throughput enterprise applications.

An Elixir for Blockchain Scalability with Channel based Clustered Sharding

Blockchain refers to distributed ledger technology which stores records without the help of a central authority. Born with bitcoin, this brainstorming technology finds its applications in healthcare, land registry, education, pharmaceutical industry, digital records, manufacturing companies and so on. The properties of blockchain such as immutability, distributed nature, tamper-resistant made it a disruptive technology in many applications. The highlighting feature of this pioneering technology is the distributed storage of ledger on all the nodes of the network. This helps to achieve decentralization without the trust for third party. The transactions are proposed, executed, validated and are then added as blocks to the blockchain. The problems with all the blockchain framework is scalability with respect to storage space and throughput. Scalability is the most significant factor to be considered in this big data era. This article proposes a solution called Channel Based Clustered Sharding (CBCS) approach for Hyperledger fabric blockchain framework. In this work, a lookup table is maintained which helps in forwarding the transactions to the clustered shards for validation. The CBCS approach helps in parallel transaction processing which in turn improves scalability and throughput of the system. The performance of the proposed work is measured with the help of Hyperledger caliper, a benchmarking tool for the performance analysis of Hyperledger fabric. The results show that the performance of the proposed system is increased from 3000 tps to 30,000 tps.