Adaptive information dissemination in the Bitcoin network

Abstract

Distributed ledgers have received significant attention as a building block for cryptocurrencies and have proven to be also relevant in several other fields. In cryptocurrencies, this abstraction is usually implemented by grouping transactions in blocks that are then linked together to form a blockchain. Nodes need to exchange information to maintain the status of the chain but this process consumes significant network resources. Unfortunately, naively reducing the number of messages exchanged can have a negative impact in performance and correctness, as some transactions might not be included in the chain.