A Generic Paradigm for Blockchain Design

Abstract

Cryptocurrencies have recently gained huge popularity. It is desirable to come up with effective approaches to constructing better blockchain protocols. In this paper, inspired by the 2-hop design by Duong et al (ePrint 2016/716), we put forth a generic paradigm for blockchain design, called n-hop blockchain. It includes one main chain, which is supported by (n -- 1) supporting chains; hence, the main chain can achieve better security performance. In our paradigm, we show that our n-hop design can be easily extended to (n + 1)-hop design. To demonstrate the power of our paradigm, we showcase two instantiations: 2-hop blockchain variant, a combination of proof-of-stake and proof-of-work, and 3-hop blockchain variant, which is extended from 2-hop blockchain variant by adding Byzantine fault tolerance blockchain in 3rd hop.